California Cell Tower Company Asks Judge To Block Wapiti Residents From Joining Lawsuit

A California cellphone tower company on Friday asked a federal judge not to let several Wapiti, Wyoming, residents join the company's lawsuit against Park County to keep a nearly 200-foot tower out of the pristine Wapiti Valley.

Clair McFarland • July 17, 2023
4 min read



A cell tower is inserted into the Wapiti Valley in this Cowboy State Daily illustration. (Cowboy State Daily Illustration)

A California cellphone tower company that wants to build a 195-foot monopole in Wyoming’s Wapiti Valley does not want the valley’s residents to fight the cellphone tower’s construction in court. ... Horizon Tower sued the Park County Commission in March because the Commission denied Horizon’s special-use permit request to build a 195-foot monopole cellphone tower for Verizon and other service carriers in the sweeping Wapiti Valley. ... Horizon argues in its complaint that the federal Communications Act requires Park County to let cell service providers fix “significant” gaps in cellular service by building wireless facilities in the least intrusive areas available.

The company Friday asked the U.S. District Court not to let a group of Wapiti residents join the lawsuit on the county’s side. ... The residents wanting to intervene are Brian Clarkson, Erik Kinkade, Lucinda and Kurt Countryman, Hannah Vorhees and Jim Wilder, Michael Gimmeson, Robert A. Nelson, College Monahan, and the Wapiti Valley Preservation Group Inc.

They asked the court last month to let them intervene in the case to defend the area’s pristine landscape. The tower is “a monstrous structure that will forever despoil one of our country’s grandest and most spectacular vistas,” according to the intervenors’ motion to join the lawsuit. “The cell tower has been vociferously opposed by virtually all residents of this tiny community.” ... At least one resident appears not to oppose the tower construction. Landowner Tamara Young entered into a lease agreement with Horizon Aug. 15, 2022. Horizon applied for the special use permit Oct. 17. The county denied the request unanimously in a Feb. 7 vote.

{snip}

“Incredibly,” reads the proposed intervenors’ filing, “Horizon asserts that, after evaluating all possible properties ‘within the search area’ — as unilaterally defined by Verizon — the only viable site for a Verizon wireless facility within the 16.5 miles of vast open lands from Verizon’s next closest antenna to Wapiti is (this) solitary site” on the North Fork Highway outside of Cody.

{snip}

Clair McFarland can be reached at Clair@CowboyStateDaily.com.