Leelanau Township residents and property owners alike will soon be able to express their opinions on a proposal to place a new telecommunications tower on Braman Hill.
The Leelanau Township Board last week approved the agenda for a public hearing 5:30 p.m. Aug. 13 to consider a proposal for a new telecommunications tower within the Braman Hill Recreational Park.
This is the most recent development in a saga which dates back to 2021, when a Leelanau County Broadband Inventory study found Leelanau Township to be the most underserved population in the county.
Last year plans for a 200-foot communication tower on Kitchen Road did not move forward after the Leelanau Township Planning Commission voted 4-2 to deny a special land use application following environmental and aesthetic concerns from nearby residents.
The lack of reliable cellular and emergency communication on the northern tip of the peninsula has been a major priority for local safety officials. The recent push for the Braman Hill location involves collaboration between Leelanau County, Leelanau Township, and Cherryland Electric Cooperative to build a tower that provides coverage along the shore and near Leelanau State Park.
This was followed by a discussion with The Towers, LLC (Vertical Bridge), who proposes the project which would include a 195-foot monopole specifically located on property owned by the township at 9995 N. Morningside Drive.
Verizon Wireless would attach their antennas and equipment to the tower once it’s built, and it would be designed to accommodate three co-locators. The tower would be placed inside an initial 50-by-50 foot fenced compound, and the proposed fence would consist of a 6- foot chain link fence with three strands of barbed wire. Access to the site would be made through the existing Morningside Drive for ingress and egress.
There is currently poor outdoor Verizon coverage in the area as noted in propagation maps provided to the township. When considering a communications tower that stands at 195 feet, coverage will serve as “omnidirectional,” however, the northern portion of Leelanau Township towards the tip of the peninsula and in the Omena area would still fall within the “fair to poor outdoor coverage” zone unless made taller.
The tower would be composed of “high strength, tapered steel whose galvanized gray finish blends better with the prevalent Michigan sky,” and would be visited by an engineer a couple times per month for maintenance via a standard commercial van or pickup.
As proposed the tower creates no dust, fumes, noise, vibration or smoke and there would be no cost to the township in terms of construction and maintenance.
Within the proposal, it was also noted that there were no existing towers in the target area to meet Verizon’s service needs. Before the new tower proposal was made, Verizon first considered whether any existing towers in the area could be used to resolve the identified coverage gap. When it was determined that there was none, Verizon came to the conclusion that a new communications tower would be needed at the Braman Hill location to meet its coverage requirements.
If approved, it would be the second utility on Braman Hill.
According to Chris Holton, Northport Department of Public Works superintendent the Village of Northport placed their water tank on Braman Hill, with permission from the township, in the mid-1990s.
