The Cross Border Coalition to Stop the Radio Towers is holding a town hall meeting on Tuesday to inform residents about the latest developments on the plan to install radio transmission towers near the border.
The message from opponents who have been fighting the plan for more than a year is that the fight isn't over, despite recent setbacks for the applicant behind the project.
BBC Broadcasting Inc. wants to build five 45-metre (150-foot) steel towers on an undeveloped lot on McKenzie Way in Point Roberts, just a few hundred metres from the Tsawwassen border. The towers would transmit South Asian radio station KRPI, AM 1550, which broadcasts from studios in Richmond to a Lower Mainland audience. Also known as Sher-EPunjab AM 1550, the station currently broadcasts using antenna in Ferndale, but wants to relocate them for a stronger signal.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) granted a construction permit but a zoning permit was required from Whatcom County.
Just days before a county public hearing on the proposal was scheduled to begin last fall, the hearing examiner announced he had denied the application. It was a surprise for opponents on both sides of the border who had been fighting on several fronts.
The company has gone to court to appeal a decision by the Whatcom County council, which upheld the decision by the county's hearing examiner to reject the application based on a failure to meet height requirements.
Earlier this year, Delta CAO George Harvie sent a letter to the county noting, "There is nothing in this proposal that benefits either community - no jobs, no economic investment and no potential for future economic development; yet there are some potentially very serious detrimental impacts."
In an interview with the Optimist last summer, a consultant for BBC Broadcasting Inc. said opponents are using outdated information to generate fear in the community and that there's been few complaints since the company assumed broadcasting at the current transmission towers in Ferndale.
The town hall meeting will be held March 31 at 7 p.m. at the Tsawwassen United Church, 693 53 St.
