by Terri Wiebold

The south and west sides of the Castle Pines North community will be getting “vastly improved (cellular) coverage in homes,” according to the senior project manager for Technology Associates International Corporation, Matt Butler. Butler is working on behalf of T-Mobile in the design and construction of a new cellular tower in the south parking lot of The Ridge golf course.

“The whole idea is to have contiguous coverage in the area,” said Butler. “These sites are driven by customer complaints of inadequate cellular coverage in an area, like where there are dips down in the terrain in the Forest Park area.”

In the works since August, the proposed tower is 19 inches in diameter and 35 feet tall with a shoe-box style light mounted near the top, similar to those found in grocery store parking lots. Butler said that the light was designed to provide security at the end of the dark parking lot, but residents are not happy about the light.

Castle Pines North Master Association Design Review Committee (DRC) member Bill Ader has received many complaints from residents who do not want a light installed at that location. “In the referral to Douglas County, the Master Association has requested the light be removed from the pole and that the pole itself be relocated 35 feet to the east, where it can be camouflaged by two existing 40 feet Ponderosa Pine trees,” said Ader. The DRC has also requested T-Mobile plant three additional trees to the northeast, protecting Bristle Cone and the parkway, as well as changing the proposed Pinon Pines with larger, faster-growing Ponderosa Pines, according to Ader.

Ader said he thought that T-Mobile seemed to be cooperative about removing the light. Butler indicated that he had not seen the official requests of the DRC, but that he was aware of the issues with the light.

The referral is back with Douglas County, and Butler hopes to begin construction later this summer. “Sooner is better than later,” he said, “and everything is subject to budgetary constraints.”