The Friends of the Dorothy Cleveland Trail have started a petition drive to prohibit construction of a cell phone tower near the Dorothy Cleveland Trail.

Clyde Monma is leading the signature drive and said he had garnered about 200 signees by Tuesday.

“I’m trying to rally some support from the public to convince the Port of South Whidbey to rescind their offer to lease the property,” Monma said.

“If I could get 500 signatures, I’d be happy.”

He planned to attend the Port of South Whidbey commissioners meeting Tuesday night and present the petition signatures. His hope is the three port commissioners will see how many people oppose the trail’s commercial development.

Port commissioners approved an agreement with AT&T in late December to lease part of the park property at Possession Point for a cell phone tower.

Monma and the opposition group also want to meet with Island County planning officials to block the tower’s building permits.

Those are both short-term aspirations, and the trail advocacy group also has a goal of influencing a county policy about park land development.

“The broader goal is to get some kind of policy in place that there shouldn’t be development of this sort on park lands or near communities,” Monma said.