With it looking increasingly unlikely that they would be able to prevent a planned cell tower from being built in the Wapiti Valley, Park County commissioners agreed to approve the project Tuesday, after receiving some concessions from the developer. Most notably, Horizon Tower officials agreed to shorten the monopole structure by 20 feet, reducing the height to 175 feet. Other terms of the agreement allow the county to pick the color of the tower’s paint, call for the construction of an 8-foot-high fence around the equipment that will be located on the ground and require the removal of the North Fork tower if it ever falls into disuse.

“That’s what we have in front of us, whether we like it or not,” Park County Commission Chairman Dossie Overfield told her colleagues, who rejected the tower last year.

Deputy Park County Attorney Dustin Slade called the settlement “a very good offer” from Horizon, given that a federal judge has already ordered the county to reverse course and approve the project. Commissioners appealed that ruling, but Slade indicated that they had a less than 10% chance of getting the decision overturned.

In moving to accept the settlement, Commissioner Scott Mangold noted the costs the county would face if it continued fighting in court and that there was “not much light at the end of the tunnel.”

Horizon has said it will likely start construction next summer.

“We are pleased that we could work closely with the County and staff to negotiate a fair settlement,” Horizon Tower CEO John Kapulica wrote in a Wednesday email. He said the deal will allow the company to provide “state of the art wireless facilities” to the Wapiti community and commuters traveling to and from Yellowstone National Park.

The Danville, California-based firm first applied to build the tower in October 2022, saying there’s a “massive service gap” in the area. Horizon struck a deal with a private landowner to build the tower just south of U.S. Highway 14/16/20W and the Red Barn gas station, along Green Creek Road.

However, roughly 300 Wapiti landowners signed a petition opposing the location. At public hearings, area residents raised concerns about the impact on the valley’s views, argued other sites were more suitable and argued the existing service is good enough. Commissioners denied a special use permit in February 2023, finding the tower was not in harmony with the neighborhood and would have a “significant adverse impact.”

Horizon then challenged the commissioners’ decision in federal court, culminating in an October decision from U.S. District Court Judge Alan Johnson of Cheyenne. Johnson ruled that the commissioners were wrong to deny the permit and had failed to explain their reasoning. For example, when it came to the tower’s impact on property values, he said the board appeared to have “prioritized speculative, generalized residential concerns over [Horizon Tower’s] evidence.”

Commissioners appealed Johnson’s ruling to the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, but the higher court determined that Horizon could start building while the appeal was pending.

Johnson had ordered the county to issue the required permits within seven days, which the commissioners did not do. They instead entered into weeks of court-ordered settlement negotiations with Horizon, which culminated in Tuesday’s deal.

Beyond dropping the height from 195 to 175 feet, the company also agreed to only build between April and November to avoid conflicts with migrating deer and to put up a bond to cover the cost of removing the tower if it goes unused for 15 straight months.

“Almost everything we’ve asked for, they’ve conceded — except we would have liked to have lowered the height of the tower more than the 20 feet they gave us,” Slade said. “But they did give us 20 feet.”

As he finished running through the list of concessions offered by Horizon, Slade told the commissioners that, “we’re not sure we would have gotten any of them” if the litigation had moved forward.

A loss before the 10th Circuit could have resulted in the county being ordered to cover Horizon’s court costs, and Slade suggested that was likely. As a rule, appeals are generally unsuccessful, and he noted that both federal law and court rulings have given “sweeping power” to telecommunications companies as they seek to build cell towers.

Brian Clarkson, a Wapiti resident who helped organize opposition to the tower, expressed disappointment in the outcome, but commended the county’s efforts.

In a Wednesday interview, he said county officials “clearly listened to the community” in initially denying the permit, but “unfortunately, the regulations of the federal government stepped in and said, ‘We don’t care.’”

Given that the law was on Horizon’s side, Clarkson said he believes the county “pushed it as far as reasonably possible.”

Unlike the initial public hearings on the tower, which drew dozens of attendees, no members of the public or company representatives were present for Tuesday’s discussion.

(Zac Taylor contributed reporting.)