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Planning commission recommends Verizon cell tower to city council

The Kimball planning commission approved a permit for a cell phone tower at its meeting on Feb. 18.

The commission members approved a conditional use permit for a Verizon Wireless cell phone tower. If approved by the city council, the tower will be built just east of Kimball near Hwy. 30 close to the golf course.

The cell tower in question would stand 338 feet tall, including the eight-foot lightning rod that will be on the top. Verizon wants to improve its coverage in this area and hopes putting up a tower is a logical solution to the situation. The tower is built with a collapsible middle in the event that if the tower falls, the middle collapse would prevent it from laying across either of the roads that border the land it will set on.

City Administrator Daniel Ortiz brought to the attention of the planning commission the need to zone the land that surrounds the site where the cell tower is being put up.

“It is the duty of the city to make sure that all of our land is zoned correctly,” Ortiz said.

Representatives of the land in question were present. While some requested to not be zoned and others requested to be zoned light industrial instead of the suggested agricultural, the planning commission decided to recommend that all the areas get zoned.