100-foot tower to help broadband signal

The Whitefish City-County Planning Board last week recommended a request to put a 100-foot wireless broadband tower on vacant land.

Mountain Digital Enterprises is requesting the conditional use permit for the tower to be located on 45-acre property owned by F.H. Stoltze Land and Lumber Co. The site is west of Northwoods and south of Iron Horse.

The tower, a green-painted monopole, will not likely be visible from town.

“It will blend in well with the slope,” said planning director Dave Taylor. “It will be difficult to see it from Whitefish.”

One adjacent lot to the site could be able to view the tower, but that is unlikely because the site is heavily wooded, he noted.

The tower is expected to be used to provide for expansion of broadband communication for Whitefish area businesses including North Valley Hospital.

The tower’s location was chosen, in part, because broadband requires line-of-sight between existing towers in the area.