A proposed cellular-phone tower in the University area has residents in the area divided over whether they want such an addition to the neighborhood.
For the past few weeks, Zach Vishanoff, who calls himself the “Moss Street Defender,” has plastered campus-area telephone poles and billboards with fliers warning students of plans to build a cellular-phone tower on a lot near University housing.
Vishanoff said he put up the fliers after learning a site adjacent to graduate school housing currently under construction at 14th Avenue and Villard Street is the location of a proposed Sprint PCS cellular-phone tower.
The lot, owned by Williams Bakery, is currently the site of a house being rented by a contracting company the University hired to build the new housing complex. Vishanoff said the University has known about the project all along but has failed to notify students about the development.
“It’s been kind of secret meetings about this for months,” he said.
And he contends that the cellular-phone tower proposal is yet another indication of the housing department’s willingness to industrialize the area.
“It’s really a broad issue,” he said. “It’s just about transforming a neighborhood and barring students from the planning process.”
Vishanoff added that if the University wants the tower it would help to keep its plans quiet.
“There’s a huge incentive to keep students in the dark,” he said. “Because if they don’t, there’s a chance they won’t get to implement their plans.”
This is not the first time that Vishanoff, a longtime Eugene resident, has gone up against the University Housing Department. Over the past several months, he has sparred with department officials over the removal of University-owned homes from the Villard and Moss Street neighborhoods.
But University Housing Director Michael Eyster said his department only learned about the possible cellular-phone tower site a few weeks ago. And even then, he said, it was only through a member of the news media — not a representative of Williams Bakery, as Vishanoff claims.
At this point, he said, the information that they have can only be considered rumors, and it is not something that the department will act on.
“I don’t have the time or the staff to respond to rumors like that,” he said.
Ordinarily, Eyster said, the city planning department that handles zoning proposals such as Sprint’s would hold a public meeting in which site neighbors could voice their input. If the cellular-phone site proposal advances to that step, he said, that is when Housing would get involved.
At this point, he said he does not know enough about cellular-phone towers to make a definitive statement as to whether he would support the Villard Street site proposal.
“My initial reaction is that I would I have serious reservations to the plan,” he said.
ASUO Vice President Joy Nair said the student government has no plans to begin an active campaign, and the issue should be decided by the students.
“If this is something the students want, we’re going to support them,” she said.
Bob Mitchell, the general manager at the Williams Bakery on 13th Street, said the company has been negotiating with Sprint but has not heard from the cellular-phone company for two or three months.
He said if the city planning department approves Sprint’s request, Williams Bakery will go ahead with the deal.
“It’s pretty much in their hands,” he said.
Dave Mellin, a spokesman for Sprint, confirmed that the company has been going through the zoning process at the site since March 2. A final decision on the site is not likely to be reached until August, he said.
If the site is approved, Mellin said Sprint will make every effort possible to ensure that the tower is not an eyesore to the neighborhood. He said the proposed tower would be painted green and resemble a flagpole.
“We really try to bend over backwards in a lot of ways to make sure our sites blend into the natural surroundings as much as possible,” he said.
QWEST and Voicestream Wireless already own cellular-phone towers atop Prince Lucien Campbell Hall. University Telecom manager Dave Barta said Telecom Services has no plans to place more on campus.
But some neighborhood residents remain skeptical about the tower. Karl Wagenknecht, a dentist who has an office nearby, said he thinks many important questions remain regarding the safety and aesthetics of the proposed tower.
He said he would like to see the company choose a site not located in the middle of a residential or commercial area, such as one located on a freeway overpass or on top of a high building. The planners of the tower should consider how they would feel if a cellular-phone tower were built next to where they worked or lived, he said.
“They probably wouldn’t want it next to them,” he said. “And we don’t want it next to us.”
The final decision on the Sprint site may arrive after another site request for a cellular-phone tower, made by Verizon Wireless Inc., is taken care of, said Jerry Jacobson, a Eugene land-use permits manager.
Verizon Wireless is appealing the denial of its application to build a cellular-phone tower in the parking lot of the Travelodge motel off Franklin Boulevard.
If that appeal is granted, Jacobson said, a city regulation will bar Sprint from putting up a tower on the Villard site. The city prohibits placing cellular-phone towers within 2,000 feet of each other, he said. A hearing on the Verizon appeal is set for July 27.