[Permatopia] Breaking: AT&T withdraws application for Crossfire Church fake tree cell tower permit in Eugene, OR

[Kathy Ging]

Breaking News: AT&T has withdrawn its application for a Crossfire Church cell tower in the heart of South Eugene!

(You have permission to send this to anyone including press contacts. I hope this makes national news!)

The City of Eugene Planning Dept. had recommended NOT approving the application as originally submitted, extensions were granted to AT&T. 
4.5 hours of testimony (including 2 hours by AT&T and the City) at the public hearing included convincing expert research 
by Friends of Amazon Creek, Families for SAFE Meters and others including many research scientists, PhDs and teachers.

Results of a citizen funded red balloon test were presented, a private land use planner with 20 years of experience provided expert testimony about real estate devaluation
and harm to livability, an acoustics engineer and an attorney had been hired to effect this positive outcome. Katie Singer (An Electronic Silent Spring author) had spoken in Eugene recently.
Hundreds of hours of citizen research including several meetings with the planning staff also contributed to the successful outcome. Letters by two neighborhood associations
also helped the effort. Thanks to everyone who contributed time and money!

It may have been preferable if in a couple weeks the hearings officer would have denied the permit outright perhaps setting a precedent!

But this withdrawal letter indicates that AT&T figured that they would LOSE and achieves the same outcome - 
no 75' monopine cell tower in a residential neighborhood near a protected natural area where people recreate, walk, bike, run, seeking refuge in a natural area.

Residents of South Eugene won their battle to preserve the protected Amazon Neighborhood Corridor wildlife and bird flyway.

However, the telecomm giant instead plans to focus on attempting to place wireless radiation equipment on EWEB utility poles in our neighborhoods.
See EWEB.org for the Board meeting dates - tentative July meeting is July 7, 5:30 pm.

See AT&T’s letter of withdrawal hand-delivered yesterday here:
http://friendsofamazoncreek.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ATT-letter-of-withdrawal-6-23-15.pdf

See today's Eugene Register Guard article - PLEASE MAKE COGENT COMMENTS soon!:
http://registerguard.com/rg/news/local/33226288-75/att-drops-fake-fir-cell-tower-for-south-eugene.html.csp

See the City's recommendation not to approve it: 
http://pdd.eugene-or.gov/LandUse/DocumentDetails?file=CU-14-0003&id=1246983

See public comments (testimony included in documents named Friends of Amazon Creek Public Testimony File 1 of 2 and 2 of 2) - a couple hundred pages
that others may want to review as they labor to prevent new cell tower sitings in residential and sensitive areas - it takes a few seconds to LOAD:
http://pdd.eugene-or.gov/LandUse/DocumentDetails?file=CU-14-0003&id=1246588

While this is a positive development for the Amazon Creek corridor,implications for protecting livability and health of our neighborhoods are somewhat unclear, 
as the EWEB process for dealing with such matters is not clarified at this time. We hope to have more information about this soon.

Assembling the broad spectrum of information that we did in Eugene cost over $6,000 for professional fees and other expenses.

Donations are welcome: a couple of folks gave a couple thousand dollars and we are trying to reimburse them:

To make a NON-tax-deductible donation make checks payable to Friends of Amazon Creek.
To make a tax-deductible donation make checks payable to LandWatch Lane County, a 501(c) 3 organization. 

Important: be sure and write _Friends of Amazon Creek_ in the check memo.

Mail all checks to: Friends of Amazon Creek PO Box 5604 Eugene, OR  97405   Thanks for passing on this info!

~-~   ~-~   ~-~   ~-~   ~-~   ~-  
Kathy Ging, M.A., G.R.I.
541-342-8461
Email: kathy at kathyging.com

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