Cottage Grove residents push back on proposed 100-foot cell tower
Residents are challenging Smartlink’s 100-foot tower near Cottage Grove High School, turning a permit hearing into a fight over neighborhood fit and wireless need.
Smartlink LLC’s plan for a 100-foot wireless communications facility at 2070 S. R Street drew immediate pushback as Cottage Grove residents pressed the city’s planning commission to weigh neighborhood character against the promise of better service. The proposal calls for a monopole with ground equipment inside a 50-by-50-foot fenced area, and it sits near Cottage Grove High School, a detail that sharpened opposition.
The city file identifies the project as CUP 1-26, a conditional use permit for a wireless transmission facility. Smartlink filed the application April 21, 2026, the city marked it complete May 4, and the staff report lists Smartlink, LLC of Happy Valley as the applicant and 888 Properties, LLC of Eugene as the property owner. The Planning Commission scheduled a hearing for June 17 at 6 p.m. in City Hall’s council chambers, with virtual participation also available.
Residents who spoke out focused on the tower’s location as much as its height. John Heaverlo raised concerns about radio-frequency emissions. Veronica Lind and Jazmine Burns said a tower near children and people with health problems felt out of place in a residential area. Dan Dutton, a consultant for Vertical Bridge, said the facility would comply with federal emissions standards, a response that framed the dispute less as a technical safety question than a fight over where the infrastructure belongs.
The city’s planning structure gives residents a formal avenue to press that argument. Cottage Grove’s Planning Commission is a seven-member body appointed by the City Council, meets monthly and makes recommendations on land-use matters. In practice, that means the commission can scrutinize the site, the height and the conditional-use criteria under Chapter 14.44, but it does not control every aspect of wireless deployment. Smartlink’s January 6 community meeting in the Sinclair Room, held from 6 to 7 p.m. at City Hall, showed the company was trying to build support before asking for approval, yet the June hearing made clear that many neighbors still want a different answer, whether that means a different site, a different design or no tower at all.
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