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Old 08-13-2020, 09:25 PM
max 93 max 93 is offline
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Default Trying to stop a cell tower

My neighborhood is try to stop a cell tower from being built in our back yards. The odds are against us but we have to try. If anyone is willing to help out with the lawyer bills it is much appreciated. This is the link to the go fund me that one of the neighbors started.
https://gf.me/u/ypyzjx

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Old 08-14-2020, 01:07 AM
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Is it IN YOUR YARD?? Or on adjacent property owned by someone else?

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Old 08-14-2020, 07:12 AM
max 93 max 93 is offline
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They want to build it on a property owned by someone else. It’s a property with a an old farm house on it and the owners don’t live there full time. They will be paid $3000 a month but it will hurt the home values for the rest of us.

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Old 08-14-2020, 07:23 AM
max 93 max 93 is offline
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Here is a plan showing what they want to do.
https://d2g8igdw686xgo.cloudfront.ne...7596810_r.jpeg

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Old 08-14-2020, 11:11 AM
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If it's a rural area ... probably not much that can be done. Cell towers are ubiquitous technology these days. Might be able to get them to build one of the camouflage types. Will be a tough road, easy to argue that it's required infrastructure, and in a rural setting all kinds of unsightly farm structures are built, grain silos etc. They'll argue that providing cell service to the community is a safety concern that outweighs your view, and of course the property rights of the land owner. Would probably be different if it was something like beach front property where the view had a direct and major impact on property values. Rights of an agricultural land owner to produce income from their property is also pretty strong in rural communities.

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Old 08-14-2020, 11:51 AM
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They want to put it on a 5 acre lot surrounded by our 1.5 acre lots. There is plenty of large properties and farm land just down the road. There are even a few property owners down there that would be willing to have a tower. The tower contractor said this was the easiest choose for them. It’s going to cost use $15000 in lawyer fees to get it in front of the judge.

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Old 08-14-2020, 01:43 PM
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I've fought a few times (unsuccessfully) trying to get cell towers placed IN my neighborhood.

Why do you object to it? (they're ugly, unhealthful, etc.) That will affect your fight. Watch out - Believe it or not, some lawyers are not at all above taking your money to fight an obviously losing cause.

Cell towers have a range of about 1.5 miles. With 5G, that range will actually be LESS. This makes moving them 1/4 or 1/2 mile down the road a bigger deal than it sounds.

How can I get some of that $3k/mo. is my question!

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  #8  
Old 08-14-2020, 09:49 PM
PontiacJim1959 PontiacJim1959 is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by max 93 View Post
They want to build it on a property owned by someone else. It’s a property with a an old farm house on it and the owners don’t live there full time. They will be paid $3000 a month but it will hurt the home values for the rest of us.
I don't think it will hurt the home values if you insist that they doctor it up to look like a huge pine tree. There are a few done up this way in my area and they look pretty good and blend right in.

You won't win, so I would not waste effort and money.

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Old 08-15-2020, 04:01 AM
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Playing devils advocate I would say ... did you and your neighbors ever offer the land owner any money for providing a nice view and keeping the old trees that improved your property values?

Did you help him pay the property tax he incurred to own the property in a static state that improved your property values?

Did you offer to buy the property so you could maintain your view and property values?

Say he paid $3,000 a year in property taxes for 40 years ... that's $120,000 dollars, are you offering him any recompense to offset his potential income from the cell tower?

Do you expect him to keep paying the property tax and not develop his property just to enhance the value of YOUR property?

That is going to be the questions asked in court. In many cases neighbors have gotten together and preemptively purchased surrounding land to protect their own investment in their property. I sympathize with your position, but the land owner has rights also, what are you offering him to offset the $36,000 per year he would make with the cell tower? Surely you can't expect him to take the loss to protect the value of YOUR land, when you have no concern for the productivity of HIS land.

This scenario is repeated thousands of times a year across the country. People will move into a beautiful bucolic area and expect it to remain static because they invested in it. Then the farmer whose family has owned the adjacent land for 100 years will decide to build four grain silos, or start a pig farm, or allow a cell tower and the Normal Rockwell setting is destroyed. Whose fault is it? Lack of research by the new property owners that didn't delve into the zoning regulations? "Greedy" farmers? Corporate evil doers?

When I moved to the country I bought twelve acres of land, built a house in the middle of it knowing it would insulate me from whatever my neighbors decided to do with the property they own, and them from whatever I decided to do with the property I own. The people that developed your subdivision were probably well aware of "light industrial" or "agricultural" zoning of the area and probably neglected to inform the people buying the lots that their neighboring land owners were not forbidden to develop their properties into something less than desirable by typical suburban home owners. Cell towers, utility right of ways, runoff collection pools, pig or cattle enclosures etc. A court is probably not going to be very sympathetic. If I was to blame someone it would probably be the people that sold you the house ... assuming they lead you to believe that the surrounding property was forever unchanging and that you could expect to have the same view for eternity. \

There are two cell towers on our mountain now ... there were none when I moved here. 100 cars a day go by the property ... when I moved here it was about five. The pristine surrounding woods have been logged .... but, I purchased enough land where I don't have to see these things from my back porch because I own as far as I can see ... and I realized from the getgo ... the only way to protect my view, is to own my view.


Last edited by dataway; 08-15-2020 at 04:29 AM.
  #10  
Old 08-15-2020, 12:15 PM
PontiacJim1959 PontiacJim1959 is offline
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I have a cell tower going up next to my property too. It'll cost $17,900 to get a lawyer to fight it. Anyone willing to help?

https://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/f...177365224.html

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Old 08-15-2020, 04:36 PM
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How is the land zoned?

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Old 08-15-2020, 05:24 PM
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I'd be willing to bet cell towers get a pass on a lot of zoning restrictions, probably considered necessary infrastructure. But yes, I'd be curious about the zoning too. My guess is some kind of multi-use ... agriculture, light industrial, residential, light commercial. I don't think they can put up a cell tower in residential only zoning without consent of the concerned land owners.

This scenario is why property adjacent to national parks, wildlife preserves, conservation areas etc. are so sought after .... you can often be assured of a relatively unchanging environment for the foreseeable future.

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Old 08-15-2020, 05:45 PM
max 93 max 93 is offline
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It’s is zoned single family residential. We didn’t find out about it until the town sent out letters saying that the contractor applied for a conditional use permit. The town board doesn’t want it there either but some of the state laws limit them on denying the permit.

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Old 08-15-2020, 07:41 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Simple Man View Post
How is the land zoned?
I suspect the zoning isn't really important? You can set up a HAM radio antenna in your backyard. But the license is a big deal. No FCC approval, and the G-men are gonna come knocking. Being that it's *just* an antenna, the little guys can't drag other fed gov't agencies like the EPA, etc. into the fight.

To the OP, don't waste money fighting them. If you annoy them, you end up looking at whatever they erect. Play nice, and you get a surprisingly realistic fake tree. Spend the money you'll save on a home improvement project instead.

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Old 08-16-2020, 02:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris65LeMans;
Watch out - Believe it or not, some lawyers are not at all above taking your money to fight an obviously losing cause.
I found this out the hard way; and thankfully only cost me a couple hundred bucks. But still...

This is good advice for anyone who's ever contemplated getting a lawyer for finacial compensation, and you're not sure it's a slam dunk case.

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Old 08-16-2020, 06:38 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by max 93 View Post
It’s is zoned single family residential. We didn’t find out about it until the town sent out letters saying that the contractor applied for a conditional use permit. The town board doesn’t want it there either but some of the state laws limit them on denying the permit.
Sounds like they get a lot of consideration for being a "public service". Not quite as bad as eminent domain but probably bad enough for someone trying to fight it. Bear in mind that power companies, land line phone companies etc. are also for profit companies and still get a TON of leeway when it comes to zoning since they are providing what are considered essential services for the public.

Might want to try to fight for some meliorating modifications .... make them plant some trees, or as has been suggested a camouflage tower, anything to lessen the impact on your property rather than a losing battle to prevent the tower altogether.

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Old 08-17-2020, 09:47 AM
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Quote:
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Bear in mind that power companies, land line phone companies etc. are also for profit companies and still get a TON of leeway when it comes to zoning since they are providing what are considered essential services for the public.
Absolutely this. My family was flooded out by TVA in the New Deal and so many other families tried to fight it for so long. In the end it didn't matter, they didn't even get a better appraisal and cash offer. If a public utility or government entity wants your land, there are MANY laws out there that allow them to. They can even do it for a private business if they can make a use case that doing so will be a public economic\safety benefit large enough to justify. That the company is paying the guy $3k/mo for the right to place the tower there means there is a LOT of economic justification for it as cell phone companies rarely place towers out of the goodness of their heart for free.

It's understandable to not want to have it there, but ultimately you have to show a valid legal reason for not wanting it near your property. "Cell phone towers cause cancer" isn't proven, "they're ugly" isn't a valid legal defense, "it'll lower my property values" doesn't trump "greater good for society," and "my neighbor is getting paid for it and that's not right!" makes you look bitter that you aren't making a buck too and also not a valid legal defense. Your only real way to stop this tower is to demonstrate some kind of negative environmental impact, like it's going to harm the flight patterns of endangered migratory birds or affect the water table in the surrounding properties.

I'd be concerned that whatever lawyer you have found is just going to take a ton of money and in the end the tower gets built anyway. Unless this lawyer has a track record of winning these cases or asks for little to no money upfront to take the case, I'd suspect it's just money flushed down the drain.

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Old 08-18-2020, 06:16 AM
Redpiston Redpiston is offline
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I see AT&T and Verizon are shown on the drawing. AT&T has the first net Network which is 4 First Responders. So there is your public need. Even though they have their conditional use permit they may not have made it through NEPA, SHPO, OR TRIBAL REVIEW. With that being said, you might be able to push to have it possibly look like a grain silo since the area is rural. Granted it would be a tall silo since it is called out as 170 ft. But the antennas would be installed inside where you would not see them. One of the other things going against you is the fact that you have a transmission line Corridor near by

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Old 08-18-2020, 06:57 AM
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Wow !

They recently built a big AT&T tower maybe a mile from us. We LOVE it !

For several years, our home internet was with Verizon, thru a hotspot. It was around $120 per month, and had a data transfer limit of 24 gigs per month. We'd always run low & I'd have to use the internet at our local library, about 15 minutes away.

NOW, with AT&T, from that new cell tower, the price is WELL under $100 per month, and we have a data transfer limit of somewhere around 250 gigs per months. Even watching lots of videos, we have never even used 100 gigs in a month.

So, for us, the new cell tower is a BIG plus, not something negative.

We've been seeing cell towers near all the highways we travel, for years now. We don't even give 'em a second thought. I assume that those who practically live on their cell phone, which seems to be a large percentage of the population, love to see lots of cell towers everywhere.

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Old 08-18-2020, 10:29 AM
3fastgtos 3fastgtos is offline
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Not only would I allow it on my land for $3,000 a month I would even keep the grass mowed around it.

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