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City approves fairgrounds cell tower permit

JANESVILLE — The Janesville Plan Commission on Monday approved a conditional-use permit for a 100-foot cell phone tower at the Rock County 4-H Fairgrounds.

The Rock County Agriculture and Extension Education Committee now will write a resolution for the county to go into contract with permit applicants Cricket Wireless and Global Tower Partners, UW Extension Agent Randy Thompson said. The county board must approve the contract.

The proposal is “more reasonable” than others that failed to bring a new cell tower to the east side, said plan commission member Meredith Helgerson. She noted that no residents spoke against the proposal during Monday night’s public hearing as they did when the commission turned down an application for a tower at the fairgrounds in 2006.

The tower would look like a flagpole and would have no outside panels, said Gale Price, the city’s manager of building and development services. The county would be able to fly a flag on the pole during events at the fairgrounds, he said.

The tower would stand on a 25-by-50-foot concrete base surrounded by a decorative fence and landscaping.

The tower would be able to support three cell phone companies. U.S. Cellular is interested in joining Cricket Wireless on the tower, said Global Tower Partners spokesman Michael Long.

The city included a condition that the tower be torn down if the fairgrounds is moved so it does not impede the property’s redevelopment, Price said.

Cricket is offering the county a $24,000 annual payment on top of a one-time $10,000 payment, Assistant Rock County Administrator Phil Boutwell has said. The annual payment would be subject to a 3.5 percent annual inflation factor, he said.

The county also would get 20 percent of the revenues from other carriers who buy space on the tower, Boutwell said.

The county gets $18,000 a year from a tower on West Court Street, Boutwell said. That is closer to the going rate for towers in southern Wisconsin, he said.