Haines residents are once again speaking out against a proposed 5G tower in Haines, in large part because of safety concerns over 5G technology.

Cell provider AT&T, which owns the Main Street plot where a 115-foot tower would be built, first submitted an application to the Federal Communications Commission on April 2. The tower would be the tallest structure in the downtown area. 

This is not the first time residents have spoken out against 5G technology. Plans were submitted last fall for a different 5G tower on the northern edge of the townsite, but stalled in the conditional use permitting process. That conditional use process gave the opposition an avenue to give the planning commission pause.

But that avenue will likely not exist for this tower as it may not require a conditional use permit. 

Borough acting lands director Donna Lambert said Wednesday that the proposed tower falls under the category of “communication equipment,” which only requires a land use permit in commercially zoned areas like AT&T’s 501 Main Street property. The other 5G tower proposed earlier this year would have been built in a residential zone, where communication equipment does require a conditional use permit. 

Land use permits do not have a public hearing process like conditional use permits. They are reviewed and approved by the borough manager. 

The other use category in borough code that mentions communications towers is a “utility facility,” defined as “a use, either public or private, and which is used to treat, condition, or convey water, sewer, electricity, fuels and

communication services.” This category would require a conditional use permit on AT&T’s commercially-zoned lot. 

Lambert says that she has not yet received AT&T’s application for the land use permit. 

The tower would be the first in Haines with 5G signal, which would increase download speeds and bandwidth. Opponents, however, say that the science on whether or not 5G radio waves could increase risk of cancer is, at best, inconclusive. 

Gershon Cohen spoke at Tuesday’s joint school board-assembly meeting to sound the alarm on its proximity to the school, and said that the radio waves could potentially have outsized health impacts on children. 

Those concerns have been difficult at times for borough staff and officials to weigh, mainly because they are at odds with a broad scientific consensus and major regulatory agencies, which say 5G is not a health threat. Those higher-level regulations are generally what the borough defers to in answering regulatory and safety questions absent specific borough code. 

With last year’s 5G tower application, then-interim manager Elke Doom cited studies by the World Health Organization, American Cancer Society, Science Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks, and International Commission on non-Ionizing Radiation in saying 5G health concerns were unfounded. 

The planning commission has not yet decided if they will take up the new cell tower issue.