Myths About the Towers

Myth:

The proposed one larger tower on Lookout Mountain will decrease overall radio frequency levels and stay within FCC mandated limits for radiation.

The one larger TV tower greatly increases radiation levels on Lookout Mountain and in nearby neighborhoods. How? It isn’t rocket science -- digital antennas require more power. Current TV stations’ antennas put out 732,000 watts of effective radiated power. The Lake Cedar Group ( Denver channels 4,7, 9 and 20) tower proposal states clearly that digital antennas require increasing the power by nine million watts! Jefferson County’s independent radiation expert confirmed in sworn testimony that the proposal would increase radiation levels for many more people who live or work in the Golden area, as well as people as far east as the Colorado plains. Two additional engineers have provided further supporting detail. You can’t have more powerful TV without more powerful towers; but other sites ARE available (read on).

Studies show no higher incidence of disease on Lookout Mountain than any other location.

The Colorado Department of Health and Colorado State University have both conducted studies specifically on Lookout Mountain residents, specifically to determine what types of adverse health conditions exist and what has caused them. The sad reality is that people who live closest to the towers have higher rates of brain and central nervous system tumors. Numerous physicians and cancer experts have testified under oath giving clear and demonstrative caution to Jefferson County officials that long-term exposure to the towers’ radiation is harmful to people ‑ they also state that they wouldn’t have their families live near the towers with the risks they pose. You don’t see any television executives living near them either.

Lookout Mountain is the ONLY site suitable for these television antennae towers.

Alternative sites exist that are already legally zoned and ready for broadcast antennae towers. Channel 12 is already broadcasting digital television from atop Squaw Mountain in Clear Creek County and obtaining essentially the same coverage and reception as Lookout Mountain. Even Jefferson County planners recommended denial of a new tower on the Lookout Mountain location based distinctly on the availability of suitable alternative sites.

The existing towers have been there for decades and can stay and broadcast TV and radio signals legally as long as they want to. One tower is better than the four that would come down with the new proposed larger tower.

One of the four existing towers is illegal, and the other three are considered nonconforming -- meaning they do not conform with existing residential zoning. This is why thousands of residents in the area have asked that they be removed. The broadcasters MUST obtain a change in the legal zoning status of the land atop Lookout Mountain in order to build any new tower. According to both Colorado law and Jefferson County zoning regulations, all nonconforming analog TV towers and building on Lookout Mountain must be eliminated when the FCC terminates analog broadcasting, which is required by the year 2008.

The broadcaster’s claim that the towers were on Lookout before people lived on Lookout is false.

People not only lived on Lookout Mountain and Mount Vernon in the 1800’s, long
before broadcast towers were built, but had also already established a church and a school. Read more...

Structural failure of the towers is highly unlikely and the broadcasters have taken steps to assure that if a tower were to collapse no occupied dwelling would be impacted.

The broadcasters have gone to great lengths to assure the improvement of the mountain backdrop, and their new tower proposal will improve the current mountain backdrop view by removing four existing towers and creating open space.

The proposed tower is 730 feet tall – higher than the tallest building in the City of Denver. The tower would be supported by guy wires (support cables) five times as thick and 25 times more massive than the cables on the current towers. In addition, a new 21,000-square-foot building must be included to support the massive new supertower. It will also require a 20,000-gallon diesel fuel storage tank. Nothing about the proposal actually reduces what is currently there, nor is it compatible with the residential properties, open space and Denver Parks land that share Lookout Mountain . The industrial noise that the building and the towers will emit doesn't belong in a residential area either.

Twenty percent of Denver metropolitan TV viewers rely on over-the-air signals for their television viewing.

The reality is that both cable and satellite technology are growing and evolving at a record pace. Competition is finally enabling prices to decrease and it will become more affordable and available to more of the population every year. The use of ‘rabbit ears' to receive television is about to be minimal, and within 10 years the antennas could be obsolete. Cable and satellite are here to stay.

For over a century, Lookout Mountain has been eyed and used for park purposes, from private entrepreneurs to government Open Space programs. The City of Golden has offered to purchase multiple properties on Lookout Mountain at fair market value for Open Space purposes, including approximately 65-acres of land owned by Lake Cedar Group.

The major media conglomerate (comprised of Channels 4, 7, 9 and 20) had proposed to build a supertower on this parcel, but the proposal was determine to have inadequate setbacks by the Jefferson County Commissioners on Sept. 27, 2005. The Jeffco Zoning Resolution requires that towers be setback far enough so that people and property will not be damaged in the event the towers should fall. Towers have fallen twice at that location already. The Jeffco County Commissioners determined last September that the new towers proposed by the media conglomerates did not meet the setback requirement.

The parcels now examined for acquisition by the City of Golden have been identified for years by both the City and County as valuable for Open Space. The parcel of land owned by the media conglomerates in particular was not only prioritized as such, it has also been a park before, and the City of Golden wants to restore it to its proper historic purpose.

In Conclusion

Despite the Lake Cedar Group media conglomerate's PR and advertising campaign based on falsehoods and a blatant misinformation, the City of Golden and residents of surrounding Jeffco communities stand firm in their commitment to protect the community and the Lookout Mountain backdrop. This not a fight against HDTV, or the antennas and power necessary to bring this technology over the Denver airwaves. It is about the blatant misuse of land and disregard for zoning laws. It's about protecting the citizens' health and welfare. The towers should be built,
but they should be built in a safe, legal, responsible manner that enables Front Range citizens
to get their HDTV without harming or disrupting public health and rights.

The reality is that the broadcasters, with their deep pockets, are spending millions in an attempt
to change the zoning laws – with complete disregard for the public's rights – and are delaying the availability of HDTV in the Metro area. If they had moved their antennas to an available alternative site, Denver would have HDTV by now.