Cell tower proposed near Hayward Field.

Byline: GREG BOLT The Register-Guard

Sprint PCS is negotiating with the University of Oregon to locate what could be a 120-foot cell tower near the west grandstand at Hayward Field.

The company is expected to present revised plans next month to the UO Campus Planning Committee, which will decide whether the design is acceptable under a set of guidelines developed last year for cell towers. Sprint also will need to get city approval before moving ahead with the project.

The university decided to draw up cell tower guidelines following Sprint's 2001 effort to build a tower right next to campus on property owned by Williams Bakery. The city eventually denied the request, but it caught the attention of campus officials because it would have been just a few dozen feet from a student apartment complex.

A Sprint official couldn't be reached for comment on the latest proposal. But during debate over the earlier proposal, Sprint property specialist Jeffrey Leber said the tower was needed to improve service to the campus area.

In its current plan, Sprint has proposed building a single-pole tower near the new all-weather activity field west of the west grandstand. In that location it would be near a number of similar, but much smaller, poles that support lights for the activity field.

Planning committee members asked Sprint to consider moving the pole closer to the grandstand to better mask its presence and to provide more information on signal coverage. They also sought some design changes in the 800-square-foot equipment building at the base of the pole.

Dave Barta, telecommunications manager for the UO, said the university hasn't invited any cell tower proposals and isn't crazy about having them on campus. But after almost having one as a neighbor, campus officials decided that it would be better to address the issue in a way that gives them some control.

"We're not wild about being cell site providers," Barta said. "But if there's going to be one right on our doorstep, we'd like to be able to decide what it's going to look like and where it's going to be."

The campus planning committee drew up the rules last year. They require poles that use "stealth" designs that hide antennas inside the poles and bar them within 100 feet of residential areas or day care centers.

Rules also require that towers not interfere with research equipment, protect open spaces and not interfere with future development on campus. Poles also must be as inconspicuous as possible.

"What we saw happening was a trend of cell towers ringing the campus, which we thought was bad for the campus and even worse for the neighborhoods," said UO planning director Chris Ramey. "We decided to re-examine our own policies to see if there was a way to address the issue."

The Sprint proposal is the first to come before the campus committee since the guidelines were approved last spring. A public hearing on the proposal has not been held, and some earlier efforts to site cell towers near neighborhoods have sparked strong opposition.

When Sprint proposed the tower on Williams Bakery property, the city received 190 e-mails, letters and petition signatures opposing the application. A successful effort by Verizon to get approval for a tower a few blocks east of campus on Garden Way also was opposed by neighbors.

A 120-foot tower would be twice as tall as McArthur Court, but because its base would sit at a lower elevation, it would be difficult to see the pole from the main part of campus, Barta said. It would be most visible from the east and south, which is also the area that would get the best coverage from the antenna.

The rules also require that towers accommodate multiple users, known as co-location. The UO tower could have two additional antennas below Sprint's, but Sprint has not approached other wireless companies about locating on the tower and it's not clear what kind of coverage those antennas would have.

Barta said the committee wants the tower to be as short as possible.