A controversial cellular communications tower planned on Belton Stage Road near West Glacier will be the focus of a public hearing before the Flathead County Board of Adjustment on Sept. 4.

The proposal was on the board’s Aug. 7 hearing agenda, but only three board members were in attendance, so the applicants opted to postpone the hearing, according to Flathead County Planning Director Mark Mussman.

Don and Paul B. Herbert of Oldtown, Idaho, and Clearview Tower II LLC of Edison, New Jersey, are asking for a conditional-use permit to erect a 108-foot tower on a 20-acre tract at 1291 Belton Stage Road in the Middle Canyon Zoning District.

A similar proposal from the Herberts was rejected a year ago by the Board of Adjustment amid neighborhood opposition. That application called for a 150-foot tower.

West Glacier’s current cellphone coverage ends near Apgar for most providers, although it can extend as far as Lake McDonald Lodge for some providers, depending on the phone and the weather.

The Middle Canyon Land Use Advisory Committee met in July and recommended denial of the request.

County Planner Rachel Ezell said the Planning Office has received letters in opposition of the cell tower, largely based on a regulation in the Canyon Area Land Use Regulatory System that states “no commercial or industrial development shall extend above the ridgeline of any hill, mountain or elevated topography so as to intersect with the skyline as viewed from U.S. 2.”

The proposed tower would be visible from the highway, Ezell said.

The applicants propose to place the tower in the bottom of an existing gravel pit and would use a pine tree “monopine” to camouflage the structure within the surrounding forested area, the planning staff report notes.

The report further states Clearview Tower builds cell towers “for a multitude of companies” and has at least two interested service providers for the West Glacier site: Velocity LTE and T-Mobile.

The Board of Adjustment meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 4, in the second-floor conference room of the South Campus Building, 40 11th St. W. in Kalispell.

Features Editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.