Wireless tower approved for Asphodel-Norwood Township

‘We need the service. So it’s a good news story,’ councillor says

Asphodel-Norwood Township approved the construction of a wireless communications tower at 13 Birdsall Lane in the municipality at its Tuesday council meeting, noting there had been no negative feedback on the project from any ratepayers.

“We have no resident issues, which is great, and certainly we need the service. So it’s a good news story,” said Coun. Barry Walsh.

Rogers Communications is proposing a 300-foot tower — which was recommended for approval by township staff — at the west side of the 274-acre property, about 325 feet east of Birdsall Line and about 1,400 feet south of River Road, near Rice Lake.

The site will be enclosed with an eight-foot chain link fence and accessed through a locked gate from Birdsall Line.

Rogers Communications has provided information packages to all property owners located within a 1,500-foot radius of the tower site, which is in line with the township’s telecommunication tower policy, passed by council in May 2020.

Ed Whitmore, chief building official and planning co-ordinator for the township, said in a report to council there is a federal protocol which stipulates neighbours living within a distance of three times the height of a tower must be notified prior to it being built, but the township, in its policy, decided on five times the height.

“We decided to enhance that a bit and have our own AsphodelNorwood policy,” Whitmore said. “We thought, at that time, that it was better to circulate to farther distances than what the federal regulations required.”

“So we just wanted to catch a few more people,” he said.

Public consultation began Sept. 1 and ended Oct. 1, with no response from neighbours.

Staff are satisfied that the land use authority consultation process has been completed to the satisfaction of the township, Whitmore said.

Rogers Communications tried to build a tower a few years ago on the same property, he said, but in its northeasterly limits near a Bell communications tower that is on the site.

“There were a couple of complaints so they went back to the drawing board and relocated the tower to the westerly limit,” Whitmore said in his report.

When the tower is built, it can be shared and used by other telecommunications companies, according to federal mandates, he confirmed.

“If the Bell tower was tall enough, then (Rogers) would have tagged onto that,” Whitmore said.

A notice has been posted on the township’s website about the new tower.