Commission OKs 150-foot-tall communications tower

By COREY SCHMIDT

Ozaukee Press staff

A wireless communication tower will be coming to Saukville after the Plan Commission approved a conditional use permit on July 12.

The tower, to be located at 851 N. Progress Dr., will be operated by Bridger Tower Corporation. Bridger plans to rent tower space to roughly four wireless networks. They are currently in conversations with DISH Network to be one of them, according to Mike Long, Bridger’s attorney.

Bridger will allow village and Ozaukee County emergency response units to use the tower.

“There will be some public benefit here,” Long said. “This tower site will not only be improving wireless communication service, but also helping the village.”

The tower will be 150 feet tall with a four foot lightning rod at the top, according to Long.

Long believes the tower’s location in an industrial area accompanied by a dense tree line and declining elevation to help hide the buildings at the tower’s base will make it less disruptive to residents.

“We find a great place for (these towers) is in industrial properties as an accessory use, like what we have right here,” Long said. “In addition to that, the site is not going to emit any type of odor or sound or anything like that.”

Access to the property will be off Cold Springs Road and Long anticipates it will have limited impact on traffic.

“Each carrier and Bridger will probably visit this site once a month to check on it to make sure that there’s no weeds, the fence is intact and everything like that,” Long said. “There’s not going to be a significant increase in traffic as a result of having this site on the property.”