In 2022, the federal government awarded the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska $49.8 million to develop broadband infrastructure. The Tribe’s broadband enterprise, Tidal Network, is using the funding to build communications towers in several Southeast Alaska communities.
Tidal Network offers broadband via fixed wireless technology and leases tower space where various service providers can install equipment.
The project aims to cover areas with service gaps and give households with slow internet access to a faster option.
Tidal Network bought two private properties in Petersburg for the towers, and applied to buy a third from the Borough. Tidal Network told KFSK that it has plans for no more than three towers in Petersburg.
One is already under construction on an industrial-zoned lot off a private road in town, Mill Road, with homes nearby. Another tower is proposed on private property on Rory Road in the Papke’s Landing neighborhood, roughly 10 miles south of town.
In recent months, a number of Petersburg residents have testified at various public meetings about their concerns with the project.
Sarah Holmgrain is a resident of Papke’s Landing; her home is less than a third of a mile from the second proposed tower site. Holmgrain is also the longtime school board president, as well as the owner of Petersburg Properties, a real estate business in town. At a planning commission meeting on Jan. 13, she highlighted a recurring concern: property values.
“From a real estate point of view, aside from all other concerns, [the tower] will hamper people within that vicinity of selling their property in the future,” Holmgrain said. “It will be harder to sell property and their values will be affected because there will be a certain group of the population that will not want to live near a tower, whether it’s aesthetics or health concerns.”
Several community members have emphasized that, in Petersburg, they’d prefer the towers to be located somewhere less intrusive — away from local homes. The Planning Commission agreed during the meeting to recommend that the Borough pursue a land swap with Tidal Network to relocate the tower planned for the Papke’s neighborhood.
Tidal Network Director Chris Cropley told KFSK in an email that Tidal Network is “open to reviewing alternative locations” for towers that haven’t been built, “as long as they still meet engineering, coverage, safety, and federal requirements.”
As for Tidal Network’s response to property value concerns, Cropley said reliable broadband access can increase a property’s appeal because the internet is now a basic utility, so the project “adds infrastructure value to the community rather than reducing it.” He referenced studies that found no adverse effect from towers on nearby property values in Poland, California, and four large cities in the United States.
“Really? Did the place they refer to have the backdrop of Wrangell Narrows, Horn Cliff and Devil’s Thumb?” resident Andy Wright said at a Jan. 20 Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting.
Wright lives near the tower site on Mill Road that’s already under construction. He voiced his concerns to the Borough Assembly in January, describing the situation as a “systemic communications failure.” But he told assembly members that his comments weren’t directed at Tidal Network.
“I don’t want to talk to them,” Wright said. “The problem has been lack of effective communication from you.”
It’s part of a procedural issue highlighted in recent assembly meetings. Tlingit and Haida purchased private, appropriately zoned property for the project and got the necessary permits from the Borough. The Borough is not required to notify residents of building permits issued for any property, which was the case with the industrial site near Wright’s home. The Borough is following its code; Tidal Network is following legal requirements.
And when it comes to a law-abiding company following the rules on its private industrial property, Vice Mayor Jeigh Stanton Gregor said it’s not the Borough’s place to get in the way or micromanage personal business.
“We are teetering towards what I would see as a large government overreach to change how people can use their property when they’re using it, according to their zoning,” Stanton Gregor said at the Jan. 20 assembly meeting. “I do not think it is the Borough’s responsibility to act like a big government and decide who can use their industrial lots a certain way.”
Stanton Gregor said interfering with Tidal Network’s project isn’t the Borough’s purview, and “changing the rules on them” would set a “terrible precedent.”
Discussing the matter at a meeting on Jan. 5, Assembly Member Jeff Meucci said the tower project opened up a conversation, “long overdue in the community.”
“Tidal Network is following the rules,” Meucci said. “But if the rules are antiquated and 30, 40, 50 years old, and there are some issues that need to be addressed by the Borough, then I think this is a good time to start chatting about that.”
The Petersburg Planning Commission has started drafting an ordinance to update the Borough code from 1985, which predates cell phones and broadband. It’s a time-consuming process that can take a year to complete. The ordinance would not affect the towers currently being built, but it could regulate towers locally in the future.
However, the zoning code does not apply to the Papke’s Landing neighborhood. That’s because it’s outside of the Borough’s municipal limits, which end roughly 9 miles from town. Establishing borough authority beyond the current service area in Petersburg would be another years-long process.
Negotiations are ongoing with Tidal Network for the sale of Borough-owned property next to the town’s fire hall on Haugen Drive, the third proposed tower site. That contract would need to be finalized with a vote by the Assembly, which first approved Tidal Network’s application in September.
Borough officials said in January that the sale contract won’t get finalized until the community can ask questions. Tidal Network was scheduled to meet with the community in December, but canceled the visit due to severe weather. Tidal Network has a virtual information session and Q&A about the Petersburg project scheduled for Tuesday, Jan. 27 at 5:30 p.m.
But at the most recent assembly meeting on Jan. 20, some residents questioned the point of having a dialogue with Tidal Network, noting frustration and dissatisfaction with responses to their inquiries so far.
Even so, the Assembly agreed that meeting with Tidal Network higher-ups could be helpful.
“I would like to see them in person,” Assembly Member Scott Newman said on Jan. 20. “I’d like to be able to have a discussion with them, and maybe some good will come from it. And so that’s the best that I think we can hope for, and I think we need to move forward with that. But I understand your frustration.”
Representatives from Tidal Network are expected to deliver a presentation and answer community questions at an assembly work session on Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. in Petersburg.
But a few days before that happens, the Assembly is having a different work session on Jan. 28 at 6 p.m., requested by Assembly Member Meucci. He said it’s not for Tidal Network; it’s about communications towers in general and for the community to address their concerns to the Assembly.
Tidal Network currently has a community feedback survey that remains open to responses, without a deadline.
