A new report states there are parts of Lake Forest with insufficient wireless coverage and city officials are now taking steps to add a new tower at its compost and recycling center to improve the situation.
On July 7, the Lake Forest City Council accepted findings from the Kimley-Horn Engineering Firm pointing out deficiencies in the city’s wireless coverage, particularly near the corner of Waukegan and Everett Roads. Company representatives analyzed the entire city’s existing coverage for two months earlier this year and detected some coverage problems, even if they may not always be readily apparent.
“You can’t always trust the bars on your phone to tell you how much service you are getting,” Kimley Horn’s Adam Parrish said. “I’ve had five bars and it doesn’t work.”
Parrish tied the issue to the strength of the unit of power associated with wireless coverage, is not strong enough that leads to some service gaps.
“Much like having traffic on a four-lane highway and putting it on a two-lane highway. It is kind of what is happening in that area,” Parrish said.
He later suggested the City Council permit construction of a “monopole” of approximately 150 feet to improve the city’s coverage in an action that would require zoning code amendments.
Separately, the City Council designated its Compost and Recycling Center at 1381 Kennedy Road as a permitted location for a new cell phone tower that would be near the existing water tower for where service providers AT & T and T- Mobile currently have antennas.
“We are essentially allowing construction of a tower in the same site as the existing facilities that can only handle two providers,” Lake Forest Mayor Stanford “Randy” Tack said. “A new tower could theoretically handle three so that would improve coverage if you had the one that isn’t there.”
(The City Council voted 6-0 on both measures as Alderwoman Alice LeVert, 3rd abstained as she said she works for a wireless firm and Alderwoman Nancy Novit, 1st was absent.)
The city would not be constructing a new tower, but would be making changes in its zoning code permitting such an action.
“Designating that site for a tower does not guarantee we are going to get a tower. Companies need to be willing to invest. It is a business decision,” Community Development Director Catherine Czerniak said.
She added Verizon, the third of the main wireless coverage providers, has stated interest in building a tower at that site to the city.
The question of wireless service surfaced last year when Tack expressed some concern about coverage, particularly in the fourth ward. The city’s plan commission then held two meetings that drew a large number of residents with some advocating for changes, others saying the coverage was sufficient along with some fears of a large tower at the Telegraph Road train, which was initially proposed.
That same divide remained apparent at the July 7 City Council meeting with several people bemoaning about their wireless coverage.
“Reliable cell phone is no longer a convenience, it is essential. Too many parts of our city still suffer from dropped calls and dead zones and the consequences are real,” resident Joe Weiss said. “We can’t let bad coverage stand in the way of live saving care.”
However, other people who lived in the area said their wireless coverage was adequate and did not think constructing a new tower was necessary. Some thought the city needed to embark on additional planning for a new tower. Others wanted to consider the possibility of technological advancements.
“If this is changing every day, why are we in such a rush to build a tower when it could become obsolete just a couple of years after it is built,” resident Debbie Saran said.
Czerniak said the current code requires the removal of any tower if the technology is no longer useful.
Other residents questioned why concerns about possible adverse health effects were not factored into the decision on whether to proceed with the new tower.
City Attorney Julie Tappendorf said the city is prohibited under federal law from basing a decision on a tower or antennas for health reasons because the federal government has sole authority over those emissions.
“So long as a tower, antenna, or a facility meets the federal guidelines, the city can not regulate based on health and safety,” Tappendorf said.
With the two City Council actions, Czerniak said the city would now issue a request for a proposal from companies interested in building a tower at the compost center. It is also halting consideration of a new tower at another site.
“The goal is to first pursue improvements in service through expanded wireless facilities at the Compost and Recycling Center and then to update the community-wide coverage maps to reflect the enhanced service offered by those improvements,” she wrote in a message to the community. “Once that data is available, the City will reassess the need for additional wireless infrastructure and determine next steps.”
Daniel I. Dorfman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.
