City Council Denies Permit For Wireless Tower

The City of Fairbury received a request for a pair of special use permits to construct two wireless communication towers within the city limits, but the City Council only approved one.It is unclear how this decision will impact the project going forward.The request was made by Industrial Tower West LLC, in conjunction with Mountain Tower & Land LLC. According to a letter written September 24, 2021, by the company to the City of Fairbury, “a coverage gap exists,” in Fairbury and these two towers would help to fill that gap. In addition, “the introduction of 4G service coverage has caused Viaero, as well as other carriers, to place additional towers in high use areas to provide better in-building coverage.”The letter notes, “the increased usage of 4G data places extremely high demands on the existing capacity if Viaero at its other tower locations to provide quality service to its customers. The data usage has increased exponentially as customers are using their home internet solutions, smart phones, tablets and other wireless devices at a higher level and more frequently, which has only been exasperated (sic) by COVID-19 and continues at that rate.”As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of employees have opted to work from home, requiring remote access and reliable internet service to continue doing their jobs.The first locations were at 300 and 315 5th Street. The second was 2337 K Street, which is also the address of the Fairbury VFW and across the street from the Fairbury water tower. The City Council approved the first permit but denied the second.The Fairbury City Council held a hearing to consider the permits Tuesday evening, January 4, 2022.The hearing was open to the public.No members of the public present objected to either tower. The Planning and Zoning Commissioner also recommended approving both towers.However, regarding the K Street location, Fairbury Mayor Spencer Brown said, “Now if I can, I'd like to give you my two cents on this. Discussed briefly during the public hearing, we mentioned a neighborhood off to the west of where this property is. You guys all know my stance on housing development, stuff that we really need in town. I would really like to see that housing development keep growing. We have plans for it to keep growing. We have a lot of people in town, contractors, that want to keep developing our housing market in Fairbury. So you know, out of respect of our residential development, I would caution on passing this.”“I have to agree with that too. It seems like there should be a better area for this tower,” said city councilperson Brian Schmidt. “That's been some pretty aggressive growth in that area in the last few years. I'd like to see that continue.”The city council voted to deny a permit for the K Street location.After the vote Rick Bailey, who represented Industrial Tower West LLC and Mountain Tower & Land LLC at the meeting, told FJN he did not know what the next steps for the company would be or if the project would move forward at a different location.

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