By Brian Zanzonico
But even after a hearing that lasted close to 11 hours, residents will likely have to wait until next year for the Hempstead Town Zoning Board of Appeals to reach a decision on Omnipoint/T-Mobile's application for a special-use permit to construct the tower in the rear parking lot of the Franklin Bridge Centre on Dogwood Avenue in Franklin Square. The hearing ran so long that the zoning board adjourned until a date that is yet to be determined.
The turnout didn't quite match the Sept. 21 protest outside the Franklin Bridge Centre, which drew more than 750 people. Residents at the meeting said the 12:30 p.m. start time prevented many who work during the day from attending. Most of those who made it were retirees or people who work nights. Mothers of school-age children left before 2:30 p.m. to pick their kids up at school. Others wandered in well into the evening.
The hearing lasted past 11 p.m., as Omnipoint/T-Mobile brought two attorneys and four experts to Town Hall, including its own court reporter. Project architect Charles Whalen said the 65-foot cell tower, which, disguised as a flag pole slimmer than a traditional design, would house six antennas. In addition to a spotlight to illuminate an American flag at night, there would be ground-level equipment at the pole's base, including a battery cabinet, concealed by a 7-foot-tall brick wall matching the facade of the shopping center.
Andrew Overton, Omnipoint/T-Mobile's real estate and zoning manager for Nassau and Suffolk counties, said that the communications company would be responsible for maintaining the flag. One of the residents' concerns was the noise from the pulley and the metal parts of the flagpole snapping in the wind. Whalen said that might occur in high winds, but noise impact of the ground equipment would be minimal, since it would be cooled by a fan unit, and the hum of the fan would be reflected off the brick wall toward the rear of the property.
Whalen also said that Omnipoint/T-Mobile considered alternate sites around West Hempstead and Franklin Square. The Little League field on Ocean Avenue in West Hempstead; Wesley United Methodist Church on Fenworth Boulevard in Franklin Square; Echo Park in West Hempstead; and Halls Pond Park on the corner of Ocean Avenue and Hempstead Avenue in West Hempstead were all considered. Whalen said that both Echo Park and Halls Pond Park were "doable architecturally," but Omnipoint/T-Mobile attorney Keith Brown said the Franklin Bridge Centre was selected because it was the "least intrusive site." Some residents asked if Rath Park on Fenworth Boulevard in Franklin Square was investigated, and Whalen answered that it wasn't one of the areas he looked at.
Residents like Mary Pontisakos wants the tower built out of town, period. "What difference does it make? It's still Franklin Square," she said. "This is a residential community. We shouldn't have it here."
With residents concerned that the presence of the tower would make the values of their homes plummet, real estate appraiser Mike Lynch discussed his findings in two neighborhoods with cell towers larger than the one proposed by Omnipoint/T-Mobile. He cited a 90-foot pole on Rose Boulevard and Grand Avenue in Baldwin built before 2000, and said the value of homes in the area appreciated 20 percent per year after the pole was constructed ‹ the same rate as before it was built.
Lynch also said he studied the sales of 10 homes before the construction of a 100-foot mono-pole not disguised as a flagpole on Derby Avenue and Port Washington Boulevard and 15 sales afterward, and determined that the average sale price of homes was similar.
Zoning board member Douglas Diana questioned Lynch¹s comparisons of the Franklin Square proposal and the Baldwin pole, saying there are no similarities. "Grand Avenue is a commercial strip," Diana said. "There are no residents in homes across the street looking at a pole."
When Lynch said the pole would "not result in further devaluation," he was met with boos. Zoning board member William Weitzman challenged Lynch by asking what he would do if he were in the market for a home.
"Would you pay the same price for a home across the street from a mono pole?" Weitzman asked.
"[It] would not bother me," Lynch responded. "I live near a telecommunications facility."
Residents fear the long-term health consequences of living near a cell tower, but the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits municipal zoning boards from banning cell phone towers and antennas from their communities because of "perceived" health risks.
People power
Led by Ron Lipsky, who organized the Franklin Square United Neighborhood Association, residents raised more than $10,000 to hire an attorney, Tom McKevitt, and an expert on cell phone technology, Richard Comey, to challenge Omnipoint/T-Mobile's assertion that the need for the tower is based on gaps in coverage. Comey testified that during a test, 100 calls were made throughout the area, and reception during all the calls made and received was "crystal clear." Some residents who had arrived before noon, waited until 10 p.m. to address the board. Some got the chance to speak, but the board opted to adjourn rather than hear the rest of the expert testimony.
Lipsky called the fight "David versus Goliath," but he said he likes the residents¹ chances. "I think we held our own," Lipsky said. "We're going against a multi-billion-dollar company, and I think we held our own. The community is very united about this. They don't want a tower."
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