By:Doug Miller
The application calls for 12 telecommunication antennas and three equipment cabinets on the retail structure at 1042-1052 W. Beech St., which is also known as 52 Florida St. The antennas would reach a height of about 30 feet.
None of the West End neighbors who attending the March 25 Zoning Board of Appeals meeting at which the subject was raised thought the antennas sounded like a very good idea -- especially since the building in question is across the street from the playground at Georgia Park.
One resident who spoke against the proposal was firefighter Neil McCarthy, a Wyoming Street resident who serves with Squad 18 on Manhattan's West Side. McCarthy testified that these antennas are a menace to firemen when they work roof-top fires.
"And to put this across the street from a park is ludicrous," he added. "It's crazy to even take a chance, and I have four kids."
McCarthy said that a petition he is circulating against the variance has more than 100 signatures. He planned to present it to the City Council at Wednesday night's meeting.
T-Mobile attorneys said the antennas would, at maximum usage, produce power at a rate equal to 2 percent of federally acceptable limits. And provided the tower complied with Federal Communications Commission regulations for power levels, they argued, the city was "precluded from regulating" the tower.
Charles Theofan, the attorney for the board as well as the city's corporation counsel, agreed that the city's hands were largely tied on the matter. "The Telecommunications Act of 1996 gives these companies almost monopolistic power in these cases," Theofan said. "Before we heard this case, my office did some research and found a multitude of cases where zoning boards who refused them had been overturned on appeal. All they need to do is show a public need."
The Town of Oyster Bay, for instance, learned this the hard way in 1999 when its town board rejected an application by AT&T Wireless to build a tower. The company appealed, and the ruling was ultimately overturned. In upholding AT&T's position, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that because "under New York law cellular telephone companies are afforded the status of public utilities, the company's application for variance must be judged on different standards than that applied to the usual applications."
The objections by the residents of Oyster Bay were similar to what was heard by the Long Beach Zoning Board, which also works against the city. The appeals court held that "residents objecting to permits expressed only [a] few generalized concerns with aesthetics and property values, while focusing primarily on potential health effects of facilities, which was [an] impermissible basis for denying permits under [the] Telecommunications Act."
However, there is a law on the books in Long Beach that says new utility structures must be shared. For instance, if AT&T Wireless were allowed to build an antenna on top of the train station, it must then share it with Verizon and T-Mobile. As it stands, there are no other cellular antennas in the West End.
That may change. This month the Zoning Board will hear an application by AT&T wireless to build an antenna atop 801 W. Beech St., at New York Avenue.
