Letter to the editor, sent to the Metchosin Muse, Sept 20, 2010
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Early in September several residents along Rocky Point road received 
a large envelope addressed to “Resident” that contained a startling 
piece of news. Telus, the package said, was going to use the property 
owned by the Juan de Fuca Columbus Club to build a 100-ft communications 
tower right next to the road, just a stone’s throw from seven residences. 

The Metchosin District Council, which had been in dialog with Telus 
earlier in the year about possible Metchosin sites for a cell tower, 
was equally surprised at the company’s sudden proposal. The Council 
had been working over the summer, with Telus’s explicit knowledge, on 
a new telecommunications antenna protocol for the District’s by-laws. 
It now appeared that Telus was going to force the Metchosin District 
government and its residents to accept their own tower location, 
conducting only the slenderest of public consultation and taking no 
input at all from the Council.

In the second week of September Sherry Hurst, the Metchosin Planner, 
submitted to Council a review of the proposed tower. She noted that the 
proposal and its consultation process appeared to be a deliberate attempt 
to circumvent the siting protocol being worked on by the District. She 
emphasized in her report the unsuitability of Telus’s choice of possible 
sites: (1) the tiny parcel allowed no setback from one of the busiest 
roads in Metchosin, (2) it was located in a dense cluster of residences, 
and (3) it was in a position along the road that amplified the tower’s 
visual impact. She also called attention to Telus’s abbreviated consultation 
process, which gave local landowners slim notice and only narrow opportunities 
for comment. Crucial information about the tower, the Planner pointed out, 
was missing from the proposal.
 
On Monday, September 13, the Metchosin District Council unanimously passed 
the new tower siting protocol and two further resolutions designed to initiate 
dialog with Telus about its proposal.
 
Residents in the area have been contacting the many landowners not notified by 
Telus, circulating petitions, and learning everything they can about the 
situation. A neighbourhood group has gathered to oppose the current tower 
siting. If you would like to be on a local mailing list about the proposed 
tower, sign a petition, or help in any way with our protest against Telus’s 
precipitate actions, please contact one of us.

Kem Luther  Philip Wadham  Jeni Luther  Jeanne Luther  Fran Wadham  Steven Kelly
Larry Johnson  Mike Sargent  Sally Garcelon  Diane Johnson  Karen Hakkarainen