Officials from the county and Leelanau Township met at the government center Tuesday in hopes of putting construction of a new telecommunications tower in the northern part of the county back on track.
They agreed that the next step was holding a public hearing on the project at the soonest possible Leelanau Township Planning Commission meeting, which is going to be at 7 p.m. on May 9.
Leelanau Township and the county have been working on an intergovernmental agreement to build a cell tower in the township for some time now. The township board committed $100,000 of their American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds towards this project as early as March 2023.
It took over a year for both parties to agree on the language for this agreement, with the township approving the document at their Feb. 13, 2024, meeting.
According to Matt Ansorge, county emergency management director and one of the coordinators of the project, the delays were caused by miscommunication between county officials and the three Leelanau Township supervisors who have served over the last two years.
From the county’s point of view, it appeared that the project was finally ready to move forward in March, with the county board of commissioners slating the intergovernmental agreement for approval on March 19.
However, at the April 9 Leelanau Township meeting, township officials pumped the brakes on the project. In Ansorge’s words at this meeting, it “came to light” between the county board session and the township meeting that Leelanau Township’s planning commission had not put the plans to erect the tower through the proper review process.
The proposed location of the 195-foot-tall tower is a hill on a privately-owned lot northwest of an intersection of Garthe and Kitchen roads near Northport. In the opinion of township planning commission member Brian Mitchell, the need for better mobile coverage in this area is well-established, but some residents may take issue with the exact location.
Hoping that the tower project passes review by the planning commission, county Interim Administrator Richard Lewis instructed county employees to begin preparing requests for proposals (RFPs) on the project. If the public hearing goes well, he said they hope to send out RFPs next month and line up construction work for mid-July.
Per the draft intergovernmental agreement, Leelanau Township would cover about a fourth of the $405,500 in construction costs for the new tower. Cherryland Electric is covering a further $162,000 in costs in exchange for free space on the four county-owned towers for 25 years.
If the tower is built, two cellular carriers will be able to claim space on the tower to improve their reception in the area. The network provider Verizon is particularly interested in claiming one of these spaces, Ansorge said.
