Oracle residents are tussling over a proposed cell phone tower in the center of town on private land behind Oracle Market, formerly Hildreth's Market, 760 E. American Ave.
The Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission has scheduled a Dec. 16 hearing on the matter.
Sound familiar?
The market's previous owners, Merle "Red" and Elida Hildreth, attempted to lease the land six years ago to a cell phone company that wanted to put a tower there, but a community outcry and safety concerns led the planning commission - and later the Pinal County Board of Supervisors - to deny the Hildreths' request for a special-use permit for the land.
This time around, things seem different.
The market has new owners, Adrian and Kari Darimont.
It's a different cell phone company - back then it was Nextel, and this time it's Verizon.
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At 65 feet - 73 feet including a proposed "monopine" disguise - the newest proposed tower would be less than half the height of the proposed 150-foot tower six years ago.
And perhaps most importantly, six years ago the emergency response community was trying to get Federal Aviation Administration approval for a helipad on a dirt patch near the proposed tower site.
The 150-foot tower from six years ago could have jeopardized FAA certification of the site as an approved helipad, emergency responders said at the time.
Since then, a concrete pad has been built and approved.
Now, as back then, according to Oracle Fire Department spokesman Larry Southard, the helipad is used 20 to 30 times a year to take people to be treated for heart attacks, car crash injuries, scorpion stings or an array of other maladies.
Emergencies from nearby San Manuel and Mammoth are handled by helicopters landing in Oracle.
The tower's proposed location is at the heart of the matter. Oracle is a community of mostly one-story, wooden buildings, with split-rail fences and mom-and-pop businesses selling antiques, home-grown vegetables and ice cream. Even the local post office looks more like a ranch house than a government facility.
The landscape is hilly, with the majority of the town's 1,700 homes tucked among the hills along the south and bumping against national forest land. Many of those homes face north, toward the Galiuro and Pinal mountain ranges, which stretch along the horizon.
Oracle Market is along the middle of what passes for the community's main drag. The proposed tower site is an elevated patch of land behind the store.
Oracle resident Ross Hopkins, who is retired from the National Park Service, was vocal in his opposition to the last proposed tower and remains solidly against the new plan, he said.
The FAA has a model zoning ordinance regarding helipads on its website that communities can download and ask their governments to put into law, he said.
"If we win this one (tower fight), this is the next step because this is a lot of silliness and a waste of time," Hopkins said.
He's concerned not only about the dangers a cell tower could present to helicopters trying to use the helipad, he said, but also about the historic standing of a handful of buildings in Oracle.
The community has three properties listed in the National Register of Historic Places, two of which are within 300 feet of the proposed tower site.
"If this tower goes in, it would be such a dominant feature on the landscape, there would be a possibility of being delisted," he said.
But Southard, who was outspoken six years ago with concerns about the helipad that wasn't yet FAA-approved, said he's less worried now that there's an approved landing zone in place.
He doesn't feel the need to defend the spot as before, and this tower, being shorter, isn't the obvious hazard the other tower was, he said.
"We're not the experts to know whether it's safe or not. We're taking a real neutral position on the whole thing," Southard said.
He's willing to abide by whatever the county decides, as long as the county does its homework on FAA regulations regarding helipads, he said.
It's too early to tell how the three-member Board of Supervisors lean on the matter.
Board Chairman and District 1 Supervisor Pete Rios, who represents the area that includes Oracle, said he's looking at both sides.
"Is a cell tower necessary and needed in Oracle, Arizona? Absolutely," he said, adding that cell phone calls frequently drop when people travel through the area. But he's unsure whether the proposed location is too close to the helipad. "We just want to ensure the safety of our helicopters coming in."
Contact reporter Shelley Shelton at sshelton@azstarnet.com or 807-8464.
