Pushback in Harrow over 65-metre cell tower planned for Ferris Road

A Harrow resident is fighting against a cell tower, which is proposed to be built right behind his home. CTV Windsor’s Bob Bellacicco reports.

A resident in Harrow is frustrated with a proposed cell phone tower at 2060 Ferris Road, just north of County Road 20.

Zach Klein has created an online petition calling for the tower to be relocated from his near backyard to an alternate industrial site.

LandSolutions Inc. is leading the proposal of the 64.5 metre structure on behalf of Terrion, which services towers for TELUS.

Klein spoke with AM800’s Live and Local with Kyle Horner.

“No homeowner should have a 65-metre structure 200 feet from their bedroom. Good planning practice requires reasonable separation between industrial installations and residential living spaces,” said Klein.

“If this can happen to me, this can happen to anyone.”

Klein said it was concerning to him that he was told he only had 30 days to submit any objections to the proposal.

“I’m not against a cell phone tower. I understand that in this day and age everyone needs reception. We need to be able to contact our loved ones, but we need it to not be in a residential area. This is a huge thing, this isn’t small,” he said.

Klein’s petition has garnered over 600 signatures, which he will submit before the deadline of Nov. 30.

“When they see how many people in the community are against this, it carries weight,” said Klein.

“There’s only three or four people that live on Ferris Road. If I brought just my road with me, they’d be like ah, whatever, who cares, we can just build it. But if you really do have the community with you, I want to stress this, it carries significant weight.”

Klein said his dad is scheduled to meet with Essex mayor Sherry Bondy on Monday afternoon.

Bondy said the matter will come before council for consideration.

“At the end of the day, the municipality doesn’t have a whole lot of say. We get to say hey we support it; hey we don’t support it. But it is the federal government that makes the decision at the end of the day,” said Bondy.

Bondy said the town is aware of the need for more infrastructure to help with dropped calls and service.

“This particular tower is really close to a home. When I saw the location, I was like oh gee. Have they looked at other locations, and it doesn’t hurt to ask companies to come back to the drawing board and show us that they’ve looked at all other possible locations,” she said.

Bondy said she wasn’t surprised over the support that Klein’s petition has received.

“We know what we went through with windmills and if you live close to a windmill right now, you can see the shadow every time the windmill goes around. So, I think there are justified concerns here and the community does really organize when they have concerns,” said Bondy.

“It will be interesting to see if council can help support these residents going forward to see if there is a better location.”

Bondy stressed that residents need to communicate their comments and concerns through proper channels.

Comments should be directed to LandSolutions at [e-mail] or by phone at 403-930-4667.

Innovation, Science and Economic Development (ISED) Canada has the final authority to decide if cell phone towers can be built in Canada, taking into consideration public consultation and municipal/land-use authority consultation.

Health Canada said everyday exposure to radiofrequency EMF from cell phones, towers, antennas, and 5G devices poses no health risks under Canadian safety standards.