TV tower proposal returned to county

Judge says he will back Jeffco's ruling if based on evidence

Charley Able, Rocky Mountain News

Published May 24, 2006 at midnight

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A judge on Tuesday tossed a decision on a controversial 730-foot digital television tower atop Lookout Mountain back in the lap of Jefferson County commissioners, the third time the court has sent the issue back for further consideration.

Jefferson County District Court Judge R. Brooke Jackson's ruling says he will "affirm whatever decision is made (by commissioners), so long as it can be shown there is competent evidence in the record that supports the decision."

The ruling apparently disputes the basis for a 2005 vote by the three-member Board of County Commissioners that found that the proposed tower and an existing broadcast tower at the site posed the risk of a domino-effect failure should either one collapse, thereby endangering nearby residences.

Former county commissioners approved the broadcast tower proposal twice, the first time in 2003, then a second time in 2004 after the case was sent back by Jackson. Tower opponents filed a court challenge of that decision.

In the order issued Tuesday, Jackson said he disagrees with commissioners and other opponents of the tower that "competent evidence" of potential multiple tower failure was presented at the September 2005 public hearing.

That hearing followed Jackson's May 2005 ruling calling for a closer look at the multiple-tower-failure argument presented by the city of Golden and Canyon Area Residents for the Environment, an umbrella group representing a number of

homeowners groups and individuals who live near the site of the proposed tower.

In his most recent ruling, Jackson said the evidence supporting the opponents' claim of potential multiple tower failure "consists largely of statements of counsel and speculation."

Lake Cedar Group - which represents CBS 4 News, Denver's 7, 9News and UPN 20 - wants to build a tower capable of handling the equipment needed to broadcast digital television signals to metro-area viewers.

Digital signals provide the transmission quality and clarity necessary for high-definition television, which the federal government has mandated to replace the current analog transmissions by 2009.

Denver is the nation's only major television market that does not have full-power digital television by all network affiliates, according to Lake Cedar.

Assistant Jefferson County Attorney Eric Butler said the county believed Jackson's previous order sent the issue back to commissioners simply to answer whether the proposed setback for the towers was sufficient to prevent a domino-effect tower-failure scenario.

"I don't think that the board anticipated that it was being asked to reconsider the entire rezoning process, which was on appeal at the time," Butler said. "I think this most recent order requests the board specifically either to approve or deny the request for rezoning."

Deb Carney, attorney for the CARE homeowners group, said the latest ruling very clearly permits the current board of commissioners to weigh all the factors in deciding whether the site should be rezoned to permit the proposed tower.

"This gives our new county commissioners, finally, the green light to review the entire record and look at the alternative sites, the interference problems, the health dangers for us and the harm to our property values," Carney said. "In the end, (the ruling) is a good thing."

CARE and other opponents of the proposed tower believe radiation from the broadcast devices will increase their risk of cancer, interfere with garage door openers and other consumer electronics, and destroy the view of the mountains from their homes. They also have argued that other sites zoned for such uses could accommodate the proposed tower.

Lake Cedar disputes those claims and said it, too, welcomes Jackson's latest ruling.

"The Lake Cedar Group is pleased the Jefferson County District Court has ruled Canyon Area Residents for the Environment and the other opponents of the consolidated Lookout Mountain tower have presented no competent evidence homes could be threatened by the structural failure of the tower," said Marv Rockford, the group's spokesman.

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