A 50-metre tower to provide wireless services for communications companies is being proposed at Vantreight Farms in Central Saanich.
Installing a tower on a rock outcropping next to existing farm buildings would diversify the farm's revenue streams, owner Ian Vantreight said.
"With the right type of contracts that we'll have in place, by the time we put concrete in the ground, it will show a good return for the farm," Vantreight said Monday. "It's something that you can fall back on when Mother Nature doesn't behave herself."
If all approvals are met, the tower would be up by late spring, Vantreight said.
Wireless service has already been running off antennas at the family farm on Central Saanich Road for more than 20 years. Telecommunications companies have been wanting to build their own towers on the farm, he said.
One 50-metre tower would handle several companies and do the job of four to six shorter towers of 30 metres in height, lessening the impact, Vantreight said. The towers do more than serve cell-phones. They also provide service for wireless Internet, the CREST emergency system, taxi companies and more, he said.
Under a rezoning proposal submitted to Central Saanich, the tower would be built within a 30 metre by 30 metre compound containing equipment for the different companies expected to rent space.
Al Muir, of Muir Communications which owns the tower on Triangle Mountain, is acting as a consultant for the Vantreight proposal.
Towers are custom built and can cost between $400,000 to $500,000, Muir said. "A tower is built like a high-rise," with space rented out to users, he said.
Antennas are not always mounted on towers. They can be on tall buildings and utility poles, Muir said, estimating there are 60 to 70 such sites in the region.
Central Saanich Mayor Alastair Bryson said staff are looking at the tower plan and a report will likely be ready for a Nov. 13 committee meeting.
Bryson said he has an open mind. A rezoning would require a public hearing and associated input from citizens.
The tower area is within B.C.'s Agricultural Land Reserve. Colin Fry, Agricultural Land Commission executive director, said cell towers are permitted as a non-farm use within the land reserve. The act allows for an area of less than 100 square metres. An application such as Vantreight's, with a larger area, goes first to a municipality and then to the commission.
Towers have run up against opposition within Greater Victoria despite the burgeoning use of wireless devices. Citizens have cited appearance and health concerns.
Canadians are "rapidly embracing" new communications devices, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission said in a September report.
Last year, 76 per cent of households had high-speed Internet service, the report said. On average, Canadian households spent $181 monthly on communications services in 2011, with half going to mobile and Internet devices.
The number of mobile phone subscribers climbed six per cent in 2011 from the previous year, the agency said. In B.C., 82 per cent of households had cell-phones in 2010, as those devices continued to grow in popularity, Statistics Canada said.
Telus said last month that it plans to put up eight cellphone towers and antennas in Greater Victoria by year's end. Company spokesman Chris Gerritsen said from Calgary that plans are still in the development stage and details are not yet available.
North Saanich rejected in early 2007 a Bell Mobility plan for a 45-metre-tall tower in Deep Cove. Later that year, Saanich council voted against approving a 30-metre tall tower along the Patricia Bay Highway, also proposed by Bell.
Saanich voted in 1998 against a 30-metre tower proposed by Microcell, which had earlier come up against opposition to a proposal in Colwood, where parents feared power emissions from a tower.
