The Lower Blue Planning Commission green lighted a proposed cellphone tower Thursday night that could improve coverage in an area notorious for being a dead zone.
The new cellphone tower is planned for 3175 Johnson Road, on a hillside above the Blue River Campground off Highway 9, north of Silverthorne in Summit County.
It’s been designed to look like a pine tree, and at 85 feet tall, the new cellphone tower should be on par with the surrounding trees.
It will serve AT&T customers, but the company says in its application that the tower is being designed to accommodate up to three more service providers with 36 additional antennas.
Nexius Solutions is working as a consultant for AT&T on the project, and a company representative said construction could start as early as late spring or early summer and AT&T aims to have it fully operational by the end of the year.
Because plan to build the new cellphone tower came with strong local support, is expected to have few impacts on the surrounding landscape, meets county planning goals and had been approved years earlier before that approval expired, the planning commission approved the company’s conditional use permit and site plan application on Thursday.
Most of the discussion focused on potential impacts to wildlife, agreements to maintain Johnson Road, tower connections, co-location of other service providers and how the new cellphone tower could boost public safety in an area infamous for “No Service” signals.