Petersburg rejects a wireless tower next to its only fire hall over collapse fears

"Is there a better place for this tower than right there, right next to our only fire hall? If something happens to our fire hall, what do we do? Who's going to save us?"

That was Petersburg planning commissioner Tom Kowalski, making the case that helped kill — at least for now — a plan to build a wireless tower beside the borough's only fire station. The commission voted 4-3 Tuesday to deny the land division that the Central Council of the Tlingit & Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska needs before its broadband arm, Tidal Network, can put up the tower.

Kowalski's worry was that the tower could come down on the fire hall. He pointed to a lattice tower in Palmer that "snapped in half, blew over" in 80-mph winds — "those kinds of winds are prevalent here," he said — and noted this tower is designed to collapse and would stand over more than 200 gallons of fuel. Another commissioner, Joshua Adams, raised a different alarm: the site is too close to the airport's flight path.

But borough staff repeatedly told the commission that none of those hazards — structural safety, wind, aviation — were actually the question in front of it. Those get handled through the building permit, the zoning code and the FAA. The only thing the commission was being asked was narrower: whether this particular parcel could legally be split off. On that count, one commissioner who voted no, Heather Fine-Walsh, said she found all six subdivision standards were actually met.

So the denial rests on contested ground. Commissioners amended their decision to invoke a code section barring subdivision of land made unsuitable by hazards like high winds and air traffic — the very issues staff said belonged elsewhere — and to fault the application on a height-limit question. Chair Jim Floyd, who voted to approve, argued the borough had already sold the land to the tribe in June knowing exactly what it was for, and that a subdivision is just a land division, not a safety review.

There's also a timing problem, and Fine-Walsh said it cost the public a real review. The borough signed the land deal before it passed a new ordinance governing wireless towers. Under that new rule, the tower's site wouldn't have enough setback and would have to go through a waiver process weighing alternative locations. Because the deal came first, no such review is required.

Residents, meanwhile, are questioning whether the tower is even needed. Judy Omer, speaking for a group with 360 borough signatories, submitted updated federal broadband-coverage maps she said undercut Tidal Network's claims about local service gaps, and asked the borough to pause and consider other sites.

Fine-Walsh said the denial is almost certain to be appealed.