Commissioners Must Delay Approval Of High West Request

A public hearing was held at the Board of County Commissioners meeting the morning of February 19, to decide whether or not to approve the Conditional Use Permit Application from High West Energy to add a communication tower within the HWE substation located on County Road 54 in Kimball County.

The primary concern of the board was whether or not the communication tower met the regulations in place for a conditional use permit.

“One of the stipulations in a conditional use permit for communication towers is that the height of a communication tower shall not exceed the distance between the base of the tower and any permanent structure, utility line, or road. Since it’s going to be right inside of the substation, it does not meet that requirement,” Sheila Newell, County Zoning Administrator, said.

According to John Childress, staff engineer for High West Energy, the communication tower would be used for better contact between the different High West Energy substations and vehicles in the region.

Though the substation would adhere to the requirement of not falling into the surrounding roads, the location within the substation could lead to potential dangers in the future if erected.

“If it falls, it would fall on our steps,” Childress said.

Though the application had been previously approved by the Kimball Planning Commission, attorney Robert Brenner pointed out to the commissioners that approving the tower with the regulations as they are currently written could lead to further problems in future cases.

“We have two problems. One is liability, and the second is adhering to the rule. If we allow this, people can come in and say ‘you can skip it for me too’ and be able to point to High West and say we didn’t follow the rule there,” Brenner said.

After much discussion into solutions for the issue, the board voted to disapprove the application without prejudice in order to give the planning commission time to re-evaluate the regulations associated with conditional use permits for communication towers. The decision also allows for High West Energy to submit another application at a later date.