By Cheryl Skinner

A growing number of New Territory residents are rallying against a possible contract between the New Territory Residential Community Association and T-Mobile that would allow the cell phone company to put a 120 foot tower inside the subdivision on maintenance property. Residents fear the tower, the equivalent of a 10 story building, poses risks ranging from radiation exposure, to a decline in property values and privacy issues.

While some residents say this issue has apparently been on the table since 2006, those same residents say they have lived in the subdivision longer than the rumored plans to put the tower up and had not heard anything about the possibility of a tower until recently.

Jagi Chandnani, a resident of New Territory since 2003, learned of the tower negotiations by accident. Chandnani said he had gone to a neighborhood crime watch meeting and had then gone home and got on the New Territory website “out of curiosity.”

“There, in the last board meeting minutes, I found a mention of the T-Mobile cell tower proposal. This information was hard to find on the site (definitely not something that could be found at that time easily), so I did a search and found out that this had been going on since 2006. I have lived in Blakely Bend, New Territory since 2003 and have never received any communication whatsoever about this proposal.” Chandnani said.

He decided to go to the next meeting and find out more about the proposal. Once there, Chandnani raised an objection before the board because the tower, as it is proposed, will be located behind his house.

“There is a maintenance area with a couple of water tanks located right off the boundary between New Territory and Telfair (eastern edge of New Territory and western edge of Telfair and bounded on the north by a portion of Robinsons Landing). As soon as I voiced my objection, I was asked by a board member ‘How did I find out about this proposal?’ T-Mobile had a representative there doing a presentation on this day. The meeting went on for a long time and the board wanted to vote for the proposal that night itself. One of the neighborhood representatives reminded the board that in the past they had been asked to communicate this proposal to all the residents but that had not happened. In fact as a response to my objection a board member commented that it was unreasonable to expect the association to send out 4,600 letters and wait for their responses before making a decision on the proposal,” Chandnani explained.

The board voted to postpone the vote until the March 15 meeting but since that time rumors indicate that date could be changed to March 22 “due to Spring Break.”

Chandnani and a growing number of his neighbors are a bit suspicious about how the T-Mobile contract is being handled. The first thing that sparked their curiosity was the reaction of the board when Chandnani posed the initial question at the meeting and the main concern on the part of the board was “how did you find out about it.” Chandnani said he would have thought the proposal should have been discussed and notices sent to residents a long time before he broached the issue.

And, the board’s contention that they could not contact everyone in the subdivision has seemingly sparked a grassroots effort by Chandnani and his neighbors throughout the community, to do just that. Since the Feb. 15 meeting, the word is spreading like wildfire and, thus far, those that are hearing about it are expressing deep concerns about the impact a large tower will have on those residents who live adjacent to the location where the tower would be placed and the community as a whole.

Volunteers are using e-mails and knocking on doors to alert as many of their fellow residents as possible.
In the meantime, the New Territory website is putting up a lot of additional information that could be construed as helpful. But, then again, it could also be deemed “confusing.”  Shortly after Chandnani appeared before the board, they posted a “conceptualized drawing” of the proposed tower and also posted information from the pending contract. The drawing does not show any homes near the tower location when, in fact, there are homes bordering the location.

T-Mobile has agreed to lease the property for $1,500 per month but will be allowed additional growth potential.

And, Chandnani hopes to have time to alert the homeowners in Telfair about the tower. “I am sure they do not know about this and a lot of those homes are as close to this as mine. I know every neighbor I have spoken to so far is incensed,” Chandnani said.

Chandnani said that his primary concern had been safety issues and the possibility of lower property values. Since then, other residents have posed all types of concerns. One of the issues brought up was the possibility the homeowner’s association being able to put up security cameras for safety reasons. This could also pose privacy issues for residents, neighbors fear.

Many of the residents own swimming pools and others frequently entertain outdoors. They fear security cameras that would run round the clock would allow “big brother” to watch family members, including teenagers and youngsters, to be filmed without their knowledge. 

Chandnani is not opposed to technology but he feels an “exemplary residential neighborhood such as New Territory” is not the place to place a commercial tower. He sent a letter to the board of directors and clarified his concerns the day after the initial meeting.

“The official position, at this time, is that these towers do generate radiation but at levels that pose little danger to humans. At the same time we know that exposure to radio frequencies is not good for humans and we think at this time we know what safe levels are. Field strength or power density from these towers is not constant. It may start off by having minimal numbers of antennas at the top. However as they add on more carriers, that number increases and the power density of multiple active channels from those antennas increases and specially at times of heavy cell phone use the cumulative effect of the transmissions is significantly more than had been initially measured and reported at the time the tower was built (three more carriers have already been proposed by T-mobile). Once you make a decision to let them build a tower in a location you can never get it out.

“Leaving aside the health impact of this kind of technology, please consider the impact this tower would actually have on the property values of New Territory as a whole. When people consider living in an area, what is utmost on their mind is the ambiance of the surroundings and access to facilities conducive to raising a family in an environment that is pleasing and possibly something that will hold its value for future residents. We have upheld this positive environment in New Territory for a very long time. We have become the model for excellence for a lot of developments near and far,” Chandnani said to the board.

The residents are planning to show up at the next meeting, whether it is on March 15 or March 22, and see if some of the concerns and issues can be ironed out.  
 

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