Battle over Milton cell tower back in U.S. appeals court
MILTON —
A four-year legal battle over a proposed 140-foot cellphone tower near the Blue Hills Reservation has wound up back in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Green Mountain Realty Corp., the developer that first sought to build the tower near Houghton’s Pond in 2009, filed a brief Wednesday appealing a U.S. District Court judge’s decision siding with the town in its rejection of the project. Milton’s zoning board is scheduled to meet behind closed doors Tuesday to consider the appeal.
The dispute, which is being heard by the appeals court for the second time, stems from Green Mountain’s attempt to build a tower on a triangle of land between Interstate 93 and an on-ramp from Blue Hill River Road to the southbound side of the highway at Exit 3. The developer has said the tower would close a coverage gap in the area and keep drivers on the highway from losing calls.
The project drew nearly unanimous opposition from people who live near the proposed tower site and from supporters of the Blue Hills Reservation. The opponents said the tower would be visible from several key spots in the state park and would taint the natural beauty of the area.
“Houghton’s Pond is one of the centers of the reservation, and the tower would have been seen from a number of pretty popular places within the park,” said Judy Lehrer Jacobs, executive director of the Friends of the Blue Hills. “We feel it would really detract from the visitor experience.”
After the proposal was rejected by Milton’s zoning board of appeals and conservation commission in the fall of 2009, Green Mountain appealed directly to U.S. District Court, arguing that the boards violated the federal Telecommunications Act by rejecting its proposal without substantial evidence. It said the boards’ decision effectively blocked cellphone carriers from providing coverage in the area because no other options for a tower existed.
A federal district court judge sided with the town in 2011, but last year the appeals court ordered the judge to reconsider whether the boards’ denial had the effect of prohibiting cellphone service along the stretch of Interstate 93 near Exit 3.
In his second decision, filed in September, the district court judge ruled that the boards’ decisions may have amounted to a prohibition of cell service when they were made in 2009, but he also said a recent merger between T-Mobile USA and MetroPCS – the two carriers that agreed to put antennas on the tower – had changed the circumstances.
Read more: http://www.patriotledger.com/topstories/x1069228145/Battle-over-Milton-cell-tower-back-in-U-S-appeals-court#ixzz2nWGiHEJa
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