The Queen Creek Town Council is slated to vote tonight on whether to approve a conditional use permit and site plan for a 65-foot-tall cell tower that will serve the Banner Ironwood Medical Center area.

Graham Chapman for Pinnacle Consulting Inc. is requesting the conditional use permit and site plan for a monopine cell tower to be approximately 1,230 feet southwest of the southwest corner of Gantzel Road and Banner Way. Monopines are cell towers disguised to look like pine trees.

“The applicant has indicated there is an increased need for additional cellular capacity and coverage in the region, as there are no existing towers in the immediate area surrounding the Banner Ironwood facility,” according to a staff report. “This monopine will initially serve Verizon as the primary service provider but will allow for future collocations to expand the available carriers.”

The town’s Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval of the conditional use permit and site plan at its Sept. 13 meeting.

As part of the council’s consent agenda, the council is to vote on shopping center owner and developer Vestar’s request for approval of a final plat for phase 2 of its Vineyard Towne Center at the northwest corner of Gantzel and Combs roads.

The first phase of the Vineyard Towne Center opened in August in conjunction with the debut of the town’s new Sprouts Farmers Market. The center offers a mix of shops, services and restaurants over two phases, according to a press release from Vestar. Sprouts is the phase 1 anchor tenant at Vineyard Towne Center. Phase 2 will be anchored by Target, which is set to open in April 2025.

Items on the council’s consent agenda are approved or rejected with one vote unless a council member or member of the public asks that an item be removed for a separate discussion or vote.

Also on the consent agenda is a staff recommendation to accept a grant from the Arizona Department of Homeland Security for the purchase of special event vehicle barriers in an amount not to exceed $67,140, the limit of the grant funds.

The barriers will provide the Queen Creek Police Department with movable metal vehicle barriers, “a flexible solution to ‘hard closures’ of town streets” during large events, according to a staff report.

“These mobile devices are steel barriers chained together and specifically designed to stop a high-speed vehicle attack,” the report added. “Each barrier is approximately 7.5 feet across, 4 feet high, and weighs about 650 pounds.”

The barricades can protect large gatherings of people in case of a vehicle attack.

“In 2021, a domestic terrorist used a vehicle to murder six people and injured a dozen more attending a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin,” the staff report stated. “Waukesha is a community similar in size to Queen Creek and is known for its numerous community events.”

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.