A lot of time and money have been invested in the issue thus far, so it's not surprising in the least that the application to erect radio towers in Point Roberts has now found its way into the U.S. court system.
BBC Broadcasting Inc. is appealing Whatcom County's decision to reject the towers in a case that will be heard to the south in Skagit County Superior Court, likely sometime this summer.
The applicant has nothing to lose but more money at this point, but approval to put transmission towers on a lot just south of the Tsawwassen border would be such a windfall that an appeal is obviously being looked upon as a gamble worth taking.
Courts can work in mysterious ways, but it's hard to see this appeal being successful given it's a review of a land use decision that looks pretty darn airtight. Last fall the county's hearing examiner rejected the application, ruling the proposed towers exceed height limits specific to the tiny American peninsula, a decision that was subsequently upheld by the county council in January.
The towers aren't getting any smaller and there's no appetite to relax the restrictions (in fact, there's a move afoot to adopt even stricter zoning so this situation can't happen again), so it doesn't look like there's a lot of ambiguity in this one.
The suggestion the towers would be some sort of public utility infrastructure, so therefore they should be exempt from height restrictions that are in place for Point Roberts, is one mighty stretch. If these towers were meant to benefit the Point, they would only need a fraction of the 50,000-watt signal to reach the population.
In reality, these towers are being proposed so a radio station can beam a stronger signal to its South Asian audience in the Lower Mainland, an undertaking that would provide absolutely no benefit to those in the Point, but one that could cause all sorts of havoc with household electronics in the area thanks to blanketing interference.
The Cross Border Coalition to Stop the Towers, a group that's been fighting the project for the better part of two years, isn't taking anything for granted and wants to have its lawyer involved in the Skagit County proceedings. That comes with a cost, so the coalition will once again be asking its supporters to dig a little deeper.
Given there are additional legal avenues available to the applicant beyond the current appeal, it's a good bet that Round 3 in Skagit County won't be the last.
