Council authorizes AT&T to seek conditional-use permit for 100-foot monopole at Cooling Camp Park, asks for neighborhood meeting first

Forest Lake City Council on April 28 authorized AT&T to submit a conditional use permit application for a proposed 100-foot monopole-style wireless facility in Cooling Camp Park, but several council members asked that the company hold a public meeting for nearby residents before filing the application.

City planning staff introduced the request, saying AT&T proposed placing the monopole in the park’s northwest corner where maps provided by the carrier show pockets of low indoor and vehicle cellular coverage. The staff report noted the city owns the park, so the carrier cannot proceed with the conditional-use-permit (CUP) process without the council’s consent to submit an application. Staff recommended the council allow submittal and said lease terms and a formal lease would return to council later.

Council members discussed visual impacts, options to camouflage the tower and potential public benefits. "You can make them look like trees, but then you're just stuck with a 100-foot fake tree," a council member said during deliberations. Staff said design choices such as a “stealth” design could be negotiated during the CUP process. The park and recreation commission had expressed no opposition at an earlier discussion and viewed the proposal as a possible revenue source for park improvements.

Several council members and staff stressed giving neighbors a chance to review the plan before AT&T invested in detailed engineering and design. Council direction recorded at the meeting asked staff to advise AT&T to host a neighborhood meeting, and the council attached a requirement that the applicant hold a public meeting before formal application submission. The motion as adopted authorized submittal but added the public-meeting caveat.

Staff and council members noted potential financial upside for the city: speakers estimated tower leases can yield substantial annual revenue (the discussion suggested a typical range of roughly $40,000–$80,000 per year depending on negotiations and co‑location income). Staff said any lease revenue need not be restricted to park spending but suggested dedicating some funds to park improvements could be a useful mitigation to neighbors.

Next steps: if AT&T holds the requested pre-application meeting and proceeds, the CUP application would go to the planning commission for public hearing and the council would later review a draft lease and design conditions.