GOLDEN - Jefferson County commissioners on Monday reluctantly approved the rezoning for a digital-television tower to serve the Denver metropolitan area.

Before the unanimous vote, the commissioners said their authority was snatched away by a 2006 law sponsored by Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Loveland, and Ken Salazar, D-Denver.

"The battle, at this point, is at the federal level," said Commissioner Kathy Hartman, referring to a court challenge to the law that was filed by tower opponents.

The law limited the county's authority to rezoning and turned regulation of health-and- safety issues over to federal officials.

The county commissioners have twice before approved the rezoning, but opposition from Lookout Mountain residents and the city of Golden kept the issue alive.

"It is in the interest of all the residents to make a decision," said Commissioner Kevin McCasky. "I find no reason to overturn previous boards' approval."

The Lake Cedar Group, a consortium of Denver television stations, including CBS 4, Denver's 7, 9News and Channel 12, is building the tower on Lookout Mountain to offer high-definition broadcasts by Feb. 19, 2009.

"We're very pleased," said Marv Rockford, spokesman for the Lake Cedar Group. "It opens the door to having cooperative relations with the county."

Excavation has started on the tower's base and on the concrete footings for the guy wires that will secure the tower, he said.

The highly visible site already contains a dozen other towers, and Lake Cedar Group will remove four of those structures after digital broadcasts begin in 2009, Rockford said.

Area homeowners formed the Canyon Area Residents for the Environment to oppose the tower because of concerns about radiation, health and the structure's potential collapse.

"Lake Cedar won today," said Deb Carney, an attorney for CARE. "History will judge this very harshly."

Rockford said CARE created "a great, scary argument" about radio-frequency emissions, which he said aren't radiation, although studies found no conclusive link to health impacts.

Jim Windholz, an attorney for Golden, said city officials will meet this week to consider other strategies for opposing the tower.

A motion, filed by Lake Cedar Group, to dismiss the suit filed by CARE is pending in Jefferson County District Court.

The HDTV tower

• What's high-definition TV? A digital broadcasting system with a significantly higher resolution than traditional formats.

• Why a 730-foot tower on Lookout Mountain in Jefferson County? The tower will broadcast digital-TV signals to replace the current analog signals. The U.S. converts to digital-TV signals on Feb. 17, 2009.

• Who says? In 2005, Congress passed a law switching TV broadcasts to digital signals to free up the analog transmission spectrum for public safety and emergency communications.

• So what? After the conversion, viewers without a digital TV have to either buy a new TV or a converter box to receive most broadcast signals.

• Who pays for the converter box? Congress will give consumers with an analog TV a $40 voucher toward the purchase, which retailers said will cost less than $100.

• Want more information? Go to www.ntia.doc.gov, which is the Web site for the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.

frazierd@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5308