A dozen or so people from the Adero Canyon subdivision in Fountain Hills turned out for the Planning and Zoning Commission meeting on April 25 to urge the commission to recommend approval of a special use permit for a cell tower to serve that newer part of town.

The commission went on to vote 5-0 to recommend the council approve the application when they consider it May 21.

Resident Steve Jacobson said he has been a resident of Adero Canyon for about seven months and the inability to communicate has been frustrating.

“It is not acceptable to have no cell coverage,” Jacobson said. “It should have been there before anyone moved in.”

Another resident said it should be done expeditiously as possible.

Richard Shaw of Shaw and Associates, PLC, who submitted the application for Verizon Wireless, said it may be fall before the cellular facility is in place and in service. However, they have requested a permit to install a temporary cell tower to serve in the interim. He said they should be able to install the temporary “cell on wheels” soon after, and if the council approves.

The proposed facility would be a faux saguaro cactus to be placed in the roadway median adjacent to the sales center building near the CopperWynd Resort.

The tower would be 40 feet tall and would be used instead of a 34-foot simulated historic water tank, which had been previously approved.

Senior Planner Marissa Moore explained that the special use permit is required because the plan exceeds the maximum height allowed, it is located within 300 feet of a residential zoning district and it is to be built 14 feet from the nearest adjacent right of way.

Moore is asking for, and the commission approved, stipulations the applicant needs to comply with before a building permit is issued.

Those stipulations include having the applicant submit to staff an inventory of existing and proposed tower locations within one mile of the permit location, a revised location and placement of the tower to meet setback requirements, a landscape plan to show how the surrounding landscape will be restored and a final design of the faux saguaro.