IT’S HARD TO miss the new AT&T cellphone tower that sits smack dab in the middle of Yacolt’s downtown. The tower, disguised to look like a giant fir tree, was installed on April 2, and should be operational by mid-May.
IT’S HARD TO miss the new AT&T cellphone tower that sits smack dab in the middle of Yacolt’s downtown. The tower, disguised to look like a giant fir tree, was installed on Thurs., April 2, and should be operational by mid-May.
If you haven’t been to Yacolt recently, you may notice something different about the little town. Last week, AT&T completed installation on its new cellphone tower.
Normally, a cellphone tower isn’t too exciting. But this 175-foot tower sits smack dab in the middle of Yacolt’s downtown – and looks like a lonely fir tree that’s seen one too many applications of Miracle-Gro plant food.
“It’s right behind the Yacolt Trading Post,” Cindy Marbut, the town's clerk, tells a visitor searching for the new cell tower. “You can’t miss it.”
The Trading Post grocery store and attached businesses are across from the elementary school on Yacolt’s “main drag.” The cellphone tower sits behind the grocery store, its fake branches towering over everything else in town.
The tower has been a topic of conversation in Yacolt for nearly two years. AT&T first approached the town in late 2013. The company had originally hoped to build the tower on the northeast corner of the city’s new recreational park off Northeast Hoag Street.
The original plan called for a 175-foot cellphone tower with a small equipment shelter to house the tower’s backup generator. The tower and generator shed would have sat in the recreational park’s parking lot and eaten up about a dozen parking spots.
Several citizens turned out to a public hearing in early 2014 to discuss the proposed cell tower. Many residents who spoke at the public hearing voiced concern over the location. Others worried about health risks from the cellphone tower. And some were concerned that the unsightly tower would ruin their views and decrease their property values.
In February of 2014, the Yacolt Town Council discussed the idea of turning the tower into a “monofir,” or a mono pole disguised as a fir tree. Camouflaging cell towers is nothing new. The practice started in the early 1990s in Denver, CO, and is common throughout the world.
Cellphone towers are dressed up as palm trees, cacti, lighthouses, clock towers and bell towers. The natural pine and fir tree look is extremely popular, especially in the Pacific Northwest. According to Wired magazine, “tree” cellphone towers can cost up to $150,000 – about four times the costs of a regular, bare tower.
Throughout the next several months, members of the town council and AT&T went back and forth on design, location, security concerns and permitting issues. In April of 2014, the council members voted 5-0 to approve the cell tower’s conditional use on a piece of private property located behind the Yacolt Trading Post grocery store, just a few dozen yards off West Yacolt Road and less than a block east of the Yacolt Primary School.
Although there is a Verizon cell tower on Yacolt Mountain, the new AT&T tower is the first to go inside Yacolt’s town limits. Marbut says the tower is expected to be in operation by mid-May.
“We have crappy reception here, so this should help,” Marbut says.
