Listeners fear loss of radio towers with change to county rules
Fears that Snohomish County might make it impossible to rebuild damaged or destroyed AM radio towers dominated a recent public hearing about the county’s shoreline-development rules.
Radio listeners and station owners pleaded with the County Council not to provide an incentive for vandals, such as the ones who knocked down the AM towers last year, to do it again. They worried their favorite stations could go silent.
A proposed amendment to the shoreline rules, as written, would specifically prohibit toppled towers from being rebuilt or not allow enough time to get the job done.
Since then, several members of the council said they realize that could lead to problems.
“It was setting up a real bad situation,” Councilman Dave Somers said.
One alternative proposal might allow any existing towers to be rebuilt within five years, Somers said.
The radio-tower issue is a small, but significant part of revamping Snohomish County’s shoreline-development rules.
Most AM radio towers in the Puget Sound region are built in shoreline areas because that’s where they can best transmit signals, said Andy Skotdal, president and general manager of KRKO (1380 AM), the station whose towers were toppled by suspected environmental terrorists last year.
Areas officially designated as shorelines aren’t necessarily next to rivers, lakes or the Puget Sound. They might be a quarter-mile or farther away. For instance, the whole Snohomish River floodplain is designated as shoreline, so it includes a lot of low-lying agricultural land. That also happens to be prime real estate for AM radio towers.
“If people don’t want to look at towers, then placing towers in farmland away from people is what you want to do,” Skotdal said.
The county adopted its first Shoreline Management Program in 1974 and last updated it in 1993.
The current update is necessary to comply with state and federal rules. County staff have been working on it for six years.
Council members could pass the final version during a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. The period for the public to comment has expired.
This week’s event is a continuation of the Sept. 22 hearing that drew the comments about the radio towers, many from people who were concerned about losing emergency broadcasts or foreign-language programs. Some of the comments were made in Korean.
The fears were stoked largely by an apparent act of ecoterrorism that toppled two KRKO radio towers in September 2009.
Vandals used heavy equipment to knock over the towers. A cloth was hung on a fence nearby with the message, “Wassup? Sno Cty? ELF” ELF is the acronym for the Earth Liberation Front, an ecoterrorist group.
Before the towers were built in 2008 some neighbors in the area near Short School Road south of Snohomish had tried to stop the project due to aesthetics and claims of possible health effects. Many of the most prominent activists who fought the towers were quick to condemn last year’s vandalism.
The station erected replacements for the 349-foot and 199-foot towers in August.
On Friday, the FBI’s investigation into last year’s damage remained ongoing. A $25,000 reward remains in effect for specific information that leading to an arrest and conviction.
While Somers said he’d like to allow existing towers to be rebuilt, he’s not willing to let new ones go in.
“That’s the kind of thing I don’t want to happen — to become a radio-tower farm for the area,” he said.
Skotdal said that’s a moot point, because the federally controlled AM radio spectrum is full.
“There will never be another AM radio station in any of our lifetimes, and probably never again, in Puget Sound,” he said. “That’s why the idea that this ordinance has come up at all is completely mystifying.”
The changes for radio-tower rules is one of more than 30 proposed amendments up for consideration. Others address issues such as agricultural land, docks and wetlands.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
Hearing Wednesday
The Snohomish County Council continues its hearing on rules for shoreline development at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday on the eighth floor of the Robert J. Drewel Building, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett. Public testimony is closed.
A proposed amendment to the shoreline rules, as written, would specifically prohibit toppled towers from being rebuilt or not allow enough time to get the job done.
Since then, several members of the council said they realize that could lead to problems.
“It was setting up a real bad situation,” Councilman Dave Somers said.
One alternative proposal might allow any existing towers to be rebuilt within five years, Somers said.
The radio-tower issue is a small, but significant part of revamping Snohomish County’s shoreline-development rules.
Most AM radio towers in the Puget Sound region are built in shoreline areas because that’s where they can best transmit signals, said Andy Skotdal, president and general manager of KRKO (1380 AM), the station whose towers were toppled by suspected environmental terrorists last year.
Areas officially designated as shorelines aren’t necessarily next to rivers, lakes or the Puget Sound. They might be a quarter-mile or farther away. For instance, the whole Snohomish River floodplain is designated as shoreline, so it includes a lot of low-lying agricultural land. That also happens to be prime real estate for AM radio towers.
“If people don’t want to look at towers, then placing towers in farmland away from people is what you want to do,” Skotdal said.
The county adopted its first Shoreline Management Program in 1974 and last updated it in 1993.
The current update is necessary to comply with state and federal rules. County staff have been working on it for six years.
Council members could pass the final version during a hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Wednesday. The period for the public to comment has expired.
This week’s event is a continuation of the Sept. 22 hearing that drew the comments about the radio towers, many from people who were concerned about losing emergency broadcasts or foreign-language programs. Some of the comments were made in Korean.
The fears were stoked largely by an apparent act of ecoterrorism that toppled two KRKO radio towers in September 2009.
Vandals used heavy equipment to knock over the towers. A cloth was hung on a fence nearby with the message, “Wassup? Sno Cty? ELF” ELF is the acronym for the Earth Liberation Front, an ecoterrorist group.
Before the towers were built in 2008 some neighbors in the area near Short School Road south of Snohomish had tried to stop the project due to aesthetics and claims of possible health effects. Many of the most prominent activists who fought the towers were quick to condemn last year’s vandalism.
The station erected replacements for the 349-foot and 199-foot towers in August.
On Friday, the FBI’s investigation into last year’s damage remained ongoing. A $25,000 reward remains in effect for specific information that leading to an arrest and conviction.
While Somers said he’d like to allow existing towers to be rebuilt, he’s not willing to let new ones go in.
“That’s the kind of thing I don’t want to happen — to become a radio-tower farm for the area,” he said.
Skotdal said that’s a moot point, because the federally controlled AM radio spectrum is full.
“There will never be another AM radio station in any of our lifetimes, and probably never again, in Puget Sound,” he said. “That’s why the idea that this ordinance has come up at all is completely mystifying.”
The changes for radio-tower rules is one of more than 30 proposed amendments up for consideration. Others address issues such as agricultural land, docks and wetlands.
Noah Haglund: 425-339-3465, nhaglund@heraldnet.com.
Hearing Wednesday
The Snohomish County Council continues its hearing on rules for shoreline development at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday on the eighth floor of the Robert J. Drewel Building, 3000 Rockefeller Ave., Everett. Public testimony is closed.
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