About 75 people packed a small room at the Clarksville volunteer fire station Tuesday to object to a deal that would allow T-Mobile to build a 135-foot cell phone tower on farmland in Dayton.

Neighbors of the farm at 13815 Howard Road, owned by Ricky and Leslie Bauer, have started a petition against the proposed tower, arguing it would create an “eyesore,” lower property values and expose the residents to harmful radiation.

“The tower will lower already depressed home values and raise concern on still unknown health issues,” Rick Lober said.

The tower, which would be roughly the size of a 14-story building, would be within 500 feet of homes in the Triadelphia Ridge Community and within close proximity and sight of at least three other residential communities in Dayton and Glenelg, the residents said. They said the tower will be more than 75 feet taller than adjacent trees and visible from numerous homes and roadways in the community.

At the contentious, two-hour meeting, attorney Gregory Rapisarda, representing T-Mobile, argued that no data exists to support the notion that cell phone towers depress nearby home values or cause harmful health conditions. He told the neighbors that most of them bought their homes with a different, more distant, cell phone tower already in sight.

“This is a project that T-Mobile needs to fill a coverage gap,” he said.

Rapisarda said T-Mobile looked at the Dayton area more than a year ago and sent letters to homeowners with large properties to gauge willingness to lease the company land on which to build a tower.

The Bauers and their next-door neighbor, Phil Muth, were the only residents to respond to the company, Rapisarda said.

The Bauers did not attend the meeting, but in a telephone interview, Ricky Bauer defended their decision.

“We’re full-time farmers in the grain business,” Bauer said. “Recently, the grain business has been about as successful as the stock market. We thought this would be a way to generate revenue. We have three children, and the oldest one is 18 and getting ready for college.”

Bauer said T-Mobile has agreed to pay him $1,500 a month for using the property. He said he checked with the county and the tower would not lower the assessed value of land in the area.

“The tower is a lot closer to our house than any other house. We’ve lived here and farmed here for 20 years,” he said. “We try to be good neighbors. We’re not asking for anything out of the law that we cannot do or out of the norm. We’re looking for additional income. It’s a business. We have to make this farm pay for itself.”

Leslie Bauer is the Glenwood/Glenelg columnist for Patuxent Publishing, the publisher of the Howard County Times.

Muth said he rejected the T-Mobile deal because the company would not agree to a “more aesthetically pleasing” tower, such as one disguised as a tree or a silo.

“The main reason I bought this property was the quality of life,” Muth said. “Everyone in this room has an issue with the appearance.”

But Rapisarda said that with a tower as tall as the one T-Mobile is building, no disguise will make it blend in.
“No one would be happy with a 135-foot silo,” he said.

Neighbors also argued there is no need for the tower, because they already received good high-speed cell phone service.

Residents also said they were concerned that Ricky Bauer sits on the Agricultural Land Preservation Board, which gave initial approval to the plan. While Bauer recused himself from the vote, neighbors worried that his influence helped the measure pass.

Bauer said the project passed because it met all the parameters for approval.

He also said his commitment to preserving agriculture is what drove him to design the project on a part of his property that will not affect farming.

“It’s on an abandoned hog lot totally enclosed with trees,” he said.

Neighbors vowed to continue to fight the proposal — in court, if necessary.

The zoning aspect of the project must now go before a county-appointed hearing examiner, while the agricultural preservation aspect goes to the County Council.

No dates have been set for any further hearings.

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user comments (1)

user belovedcartoonmouse says...

Nice try T-Mobile. Stop trying to build a tower amongst rich people. That's what poorer neighborhoods are for. We want to play with our Blackberry's, not see them made.

Posted 5:58 PM, 03.14.10 | Permalink