A 200-foot cell tower under construction near Greenville slipped through the Plumas County bureaucratic cracks with no notification to adjacent property owners or county officials.
In the week since neighbors noticed activity on Sierra Pacific Industries property on Powerline Road, the project has advanced to include a freshly-dug hole lined with a grid of rebar in apparent preparation for pouring a concrete pad. The plan is to build a cell tower that will support Verizon and other companies providing local cell phone service, said Plumas County Supervisor Kevin Goss.
For its neighbors, the project threatens not just the view from their windows but the momentum to rebuild their homes and community after the 2021 Dixie Fire.
“I’ll probably sell my house,” said John Stewart. His house was one of the few that survived the Dixie Fire. His 7.9 acres are adjacent to the SPI land, where the cell tower construction is underway. “There’s nowhere on my property where I won’t see it.”
In an Aug. 25 letter to Verizon Wireless officials, Goss expressed his “strong opposition” and urged them to withdraw the project. He placed the issue on the Plumas County Board of Supervisors Sept. 2 agenda for discussion and possible direction to county staff.
An offer and a refusal
Five months after the Dixie Fire roared through the Powerline Road and Williams Valley Road neighborhoods, a representative of Verizon approached Stewart with an offer. The company would pay him $1,100 or $1,200 a month for 25 years or as long as he lived in exchange for permission to build a cell tower on his property, Stewart said..
“I refused,” he said. The proposed cell tower would be 100 feet higher than any trees within view, he told The Plumas Sun..
Stewart heard nothing more about it until a year ago, when he heard a large drone overhead. “I asked the operator what he was photographing,” Stewart said, but the operator refused to answer any questions.
“I didn’t put two and two together until a week ago,” he said. That’s when contractors operating large equipment on the SPI land told him they were building a cell tower.
‘Unintended consequences‘
Under normal circumstances, Plumas County ordinances would require a project the size of a 200-foot tower to notify adjacent landowners; it would have triggered public hearings, Goss said. In this case, a confluence of exceptions resulted in neither notices nor hearings prior to construction.
The SPI property is classified as a timber production zone. TPZ zones are designed to facilitate forests that grow timber for eventual harvest. Landowners commit to restricting their land to that usage for 10 years in exchange for reduced tax rates.
Plumas County’s telecommunications ordinance allows cell tower projects on TPZ as an exception to the general building restrictions. It also exempts them from requirements that include notifying adjacent landowners of proposed projects. Building cell towers and poles requires a ministerial building permit, which involves no public notice requirements, according to Article 41 Telecommunications.
Goss called the notification exemption for Verizon an “unintended consequence” of the county ordinance. The code assumed cell towers would be located on the tops of mountains, away from residential centers, he said.
“They took advantage of the TPZ zone,” he said. “It’s very unfortunate.”
SPI did not contact any county officials, failing to respect what Goss called “a traditional good neighbor policy.” SPI officials did not return calls to The Plumas Sun seeking their comment on the project on their land.
Native American cemetery
Further complicating the cell tower project is its proximity to a cemetery used for centuries by the Washoe family, Mountain Maidu Indians. The Maidu community heard nothing about the construction until crews started digging, said Ben Cunningham, chairman of the Maidu Summit Consortium.
“We should have been notified,” he said. “We want to be sure our sites are respected.”
Some of the grave sites are unmarked, said Lorena Gobet, a Maidu Culture and Development Group board member. “We have to make sure the remains of our ancestors stay there,” she said. Gorbet also raised the potential for damage from erosion coming from the project onto the cemetery, which is just below the cell tower site.
As cell towers proliferate in an effort to increase internet availability, this scenario could happen “over and over again,” said Trina Cunningham, a Maidu Tribal community advocate. “We are very concerned about this actual site and future burials,” she said.
The Plumas Sun was unable to reach Verizon Wireless officials for comment.
‘Undermining’ post-fire rebuilding
In his letter to Verizon officials, Goss said he recognizes the need for connectivity and “the vital role communication plays in our rural community,” particularly after much of the internet infrastructure was destroyed by the Dixie Fire. But he bemoaned the introduction of this particular facility “into the heart of this recovery zone.” Homeowners burned out by the Dixie Fire are just starting to rebuild, he said.
This “large industrial tower” risks “undermining” the effort “in profound and lasting ways,” Goss said. It would also affect the property values of homeowners who have poured “their time, energy and funds” into rebuilding and are now being asked to shoulder a personal economic burden.
Stewart estimated a $100,000 loss in the value of this property with a cell tower next door. He said he refused Verizon’s 2022 financial offer out of concern for his neighbors, who are gradually rebuilding and returning to live. “That’s why I turned it down. Never, for any amount of money! Nope!” Stewart said.
“Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right.”
Scott Abrams, Powerline Road resident
Some of those neighbors are now considering even more direct action. Scott Abrams said he and others were “almost ready” to enter the construction site “and have concrete poured on us.”
“Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right,” Abrams said.
