GOLDEN — Denver metro residents should begin receiving free, over-the-air digital TV by mid-May, but the broadcasts won’t be without controversy.
A 730-foot-high tower to broadcast the digital signals of local TV channels 4, 7, 9 and 20 has arisen on Lookout Mountain over the past year.
Last March, Jefferson County commissioners approved rezoning for the tower.
The vote was part of nine years of work, including four previous county board votes, numerous legal challenges and an act of Congress.
In one ruling, Jefferson County Chief Judge Brooke Jackson called the odyssey to digital TV “a long and tortured process.”
Still a permit to go
Contentions remain. The TV consortium group, Lake Cedar Group, received a permit for the transmission building, but has not applied for a telecommunications permit.
The consortium has “given us information, but they haven’t given us the actual application and it has not been signed,” said Tim Carl, Jefferson County Development and Transportation director.
The permit involves a county review, Carl said, to ensure the tower meets standards in the official development plan and zoning resolution and maintenance of equipment.
Colorado’s two U.S. senators, Republican Wayne Allard and Democrat Ken Salazar, sponsored federal legislation enacted in late 2006 to end what they saw as a deadlock to bring digital TV to Denver.
Last fall, a Jefferson County judge ruled federal law pre-empted the county’s requirement for KWGN-Channel 2 to obtain a telecommunications permit to upgrade its analog tower on Lookout Mountain to digital.
But Carl said Lake Cedar Group’s development plan specifically requires a telecommunications permit.
“The goal for the stations is to be on the air with digital by mid-May, although that is contingent on testing,” said Marv Rockford, spokesman for the consortium of local stations.
Four towers belonging to local TV stations will be taken down after the digital antennas are fully operational and analog frequencies disappear in February 2009.
Can’t fight Congress
Residents who protested the tower understand their fight is all but over.
“With an act of Congress, there’s not much you can do,” said Deb Carney, attorney for the homeowner opposition group Canyon Area Residents for the Environment.
CARE, the city of Golden and other residents raised concerns about health effects and electronic interference from the digital tower.
The Lookout Mountain battle could be over, but Carney just received notice the commissioners will rehear another broadcast tower issue — this one on Mount Morrison to the south — on April 1.
Ann Schrader: 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com
