Residents of the out-of-the-way Lake McMurray community are serious about keeping a cell-phone tower off a hill they covet as part of their scenery.

The Lake McMurray Neighborhood Association stands behind an appeal of the Skagit County planning office’s decision to approve a 134-foot tower on top of a state-owned hill east of the lake. The group hastily came together this year to fight the tower.

“This community is dedicated to seeing this through,” said Bill Orsborn, the association’s interim president. “We’re aware it can (cost) tens of thousands of dollars. The money has been flowing in, and we’re willing to go the distance.”

Chad Savage, who filed the appeal, and other Lake McMurray residents criticized the county for not notifying them of the proposed tower in January, when the project underwent an environmental review. The county only notified property owners within 300 feet of the 198-acre Department of Natural Resources tract where the tower would be built.

Marge Swint, the county’s point person on the cell-tower project, said the county followed public notice requirements. In hindsight, she said, she should have posted notices on the lake’s more densely populated west side, for the people who would have a direct view of the tower.

If built, the tower would rise above a hill that recently has been clear-cut — a situation that only arouses more consternation from residents.

“I feel it will stick out as a sore thumb, especially in that clear-cut area. ... It will bother me immensely. We bought this place because it’s gorgeous,” resident Ans Schot said.

The hill dominates the view from Orsborn’s house.

“This community is not anti-development, anti-business, anti-logging, anti-cell phone,” Orsborn said.

“We understand things are going to happen in the forest. What we’re opposing is a permanent scar on this hillside.”

After reviewing images from Verizon of what the hill would look like with the 134-foot tower on top of it, county Senior Planner Marge Swint said, “I will agree, it is sticking right out there.”

Swint required Verizon to plant six 25-foot trees in front of the tower, to partially screen it. With assurances from the company that it would meet this and other conditions, Swint approved Verizon’s application on July 25.

County code seeks to protect the visual appeal of the county’s rural areas, but Verizon’s proposed tower meets code requirements. Sticking out like a sore thumb isn’t the same as being an impediment to a view, if there’s nothing behind that sore thumb to look at, Swint said.

“We didn’t feel that this one (had a visual impact) because there’s nothing behind it,” she said.

Residents of Lake McMurray aren’t buying that argument.

“The skyscape’s a view there. That’s what will draw your eye,” Doug Overturf said.

Overturf, who has been coming to Lake McMurray for 60 years, also worried that the value of his property would decrease because of the tower. County code is also intended to protect property values.

RealCom, a company hired by Verizon to handle its permit application, cited studies on cell towers and property values from Lynnwood and Edmonds in the 1990s that show no negative effect on property values. The neighborhood’s appeal states that these studies in more urban areas aren’t relevant to Lake McMurray.

“The property value issue is a very difficult one to address as there are no local studies that show the impact of towers and property values,” Swint said.

A Verizon spokeswoman said the company tries to work with communities that have aesthetic concerns about new cell towers.

“When we go into neighborhoods, we give the communities the opportunity to give input and give feedback, and we definitely take that into account when we build out our network,” spokeswoman Georgia Taylor said.

Providing the best possible cell-phone service is an even higher priority, Taylor said. An alternative proposal, to place antennas on a pre-existing tower north of the lake, would still leave a small “dead zone” on Highway 9 between Lake McMurray and Big Lake.

Taylor didn’t say whether appeals such as this one tended to favor the cell-phone company or residents seeking to protect their views.

“We win some of these and we lose some of them. And when we lose them, we have to go back and see how we can still maximize our service to our customers in this area,” Taylor said.

The county hearing examiner’s office said the appeal hearing could be scheduled for September.

Savage, who filed the appeal, isn’t being militant about it. He said he wants a resolution that makes both his neighbors and the big cell phone company happy.

“At the end of the day, will we get them to change things? Who knows,” Savage said. “But if we didn’t put forth the effort, we might have regretted it for years to come.”

n Ralph Schwartz can be reached at 360-416-2138 or .