You may have noticed it as you’ve driven through Cherry Hills Village. Maybe your call dropped or the GPS stopped working.
Poor cell service is an issue that Cherry Hills Village residents have been concerned about for a long time, and city council members are now trying to figure out the next steps in resolving the issue.
The issue was potentially going on the November 2024 ballot, but following overwhelming resident feedback at Tuesday night's city council meeting, that plan has changed.
Cherry Hills Village officials have been looking into the issue for the past year by meeting with consultants, holding public meetings, and conducting surveys.
After all of this analysis, they settled on a solution involving three 100-foot poles to increase cell service range.
The plan was to place those towers in City, Three Pond and Woodie Hollow Parks. The city said this solution would not require any tax increases for residents.
During Tuesday night's public comment, residents said they were all for increasing cell coverage in the area; however, they wanted to have more of a say in in finding alternate solutions moving forward.
“I don’t think there’s been enough community input into this plan. It’s not for a lack of trying - I’m not being critical - but I do support staff’s proposal to create a community group to look at this issue more closely,” said resident Mike Plachy.
The sentiment was echoed throughout the night.
“I'm in favor of better cell coverage. I want that, I answered yes on the survey.But I do want to say that I recommend that city council follow staff's recommendation of putting it on the November ballot measure and to form the citizen committee,” said resident Matt Carell.
Cherry Hills Village officials said the city is no longer pursuing this for the November 2024 ballot and is cancelling the two upcoming town halls, one of which was scheduled for Wednesday night.
Cherry Hills Village City Council will now discuss next steps during a study session in the near future.
