Residents Speak Out Against Cell Phone Tower
About 100 people gather at the library, largely in opposition to the plan to put a tower on the grounds of Piney Orchard Elementary School
Many residents of Piney Orchard said they opposed a plan to place a wireless communications tower at the community's elementary school, raising concerns about property values and health.
About 100 packed into a room at the West County Area Library on Monday evening and heard from officials from Milestone Communications and Verizon, who have proposed building a 99-foot monopole behind the school.
Companies said there is a gap in cell phone coverage spanning much of the community. Officials said Piney Orchard Elementary Schoolwas an attractive site due to its relatively high elevation.
Jessica O'Kane, a member of the Piney Orchard Community Association Board of Directors, and a parent of students at the school, said she believed the tower would hurt property values in the area.
"Imagine that I'm someone who's looking to move into the community, and then, bam—I see there's a 99-foot cell tower at the first-grade playground at the elementary school," said
Residents also said they were angry at a lack of notice. Officials said that about 1,000 homes received notifications about Monday's meeting. However, that number does not include all of the families with children at Piney Orchard Elementary School.
Residents also cited concerns about the effects of radiation from the tower.
Milestone and Verizon officials refuted health concerns, insisting that radiation from the cell tower would be well below FCC limits and lower than common items, including microwaves and baby monitors.
"The more scientific the study, the more conclusive it is that it's not harmful," said Christian Winkler, a vice president with Milestone.
Milestone would build the tower under a master leasing agreement with Anne Arundel County Public Schools. Under the agreement signed in 2012, AACPS gets 40 percent of all rent revenue, or about $12,000 per year. AACPS also gets a $25,000 fee once the tower is built and $5,000 for every carrier that's added to it.
The tower at Piney Orchard Elementary School would be unique to the county schools. The handful of other schools with wireless transmitters have them placed on water towers or other existing structures, according to Greg Stewart, a facilities manager with AACPS.
Milestone officials said they would likely not get a building permit for the tower until the fall. Between now and then, the company indicated it would seek a variance from the county on setback requirements. So called "one-to-one" rules require a setback of at least one foot for every foot of height. The pole is 99 feet tall but closer than 99 feet to property owned by nearby homeowners associations. (It is more than 99 feet from the school, company officials said.)
Verizon and Milestone officials acknowledged that they liked the Piney Orchard Elementary School site from the start, because it offered one of the highest elevations in the area. But they did explore at least at half-dozen other locations, including one near the Capitol Raceway and another at a BGE substation. But in most cases, the landowners declined to negotiate or the site would have required a pole exceeding the 125-foot limit set by the county.
The companies also looked at property on Fort Meade, as well as some land on Amtrak right-of-way, but were rebuffed.
Verizon and Milestone inquired about adding service to the flagpole transmitter at the Piney Orchard Ice Arena, but were told that the pole was already at capacity.
Jeff Andrade, president of the Piney Orchard Community Association, questioned why he and POCA board members were not approached about finding an alternative site on community property.
"I just think at this point [the school] is not the best site," Andrade said. "We think we could have found a site in the community that's further away from homes."
http://odenton.patch.com/articles/residents-speak-out-against-cell-phone-tower
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