Joshua Tree National Park?
Perhaps not. Fir trees? Palm trees? Maybe not. Are additions atop store facades design improvements?
Maybe not. Sometimes the transmission facilities are well hidden. Usually they stick out like the ‘natural' aberrations
they are.
Hundreds of residents in high-end communities, who treasure
their tree-lined streets, historic buildings, and woodsy acreage, have done battle with Verizon
and other wireless carriers– often to no avail. They assume that their zoning laws will protect them from having to
look at 150-foot cellular transmission towers and are shocked to find out otherwise.
The battles to ban towers continue as cellular providers
race to build ever-larger networks for the seamless coverage that their customers demand.
Sure, some communities have won out and their resistance
has produced notable dead-spots in phone service. It has become customary in such places for cell phone users to pull over,
park, and finish their conversations before moving forward into ‘graveyard' territory.
The NIMBY (not in my backyard)
syndrome motivates court actions. Everybody wants good cell phone service without having to look at those phonied-up towers
in their neighborhoods.
Although carriers have been winning most of their legal
skirmishes, hundreds of cell towers have ‘crashed to the ground' after lengthly court disputes.
In quaint Mendham Township, in New Jersey, Verizon proposed
a 1200-square-foot tower base disguised to look like a barn. The adjacent landowner spent $30 thousand in legal fees during
five years to fight the 14-story-high project. Then her neighbor made a deal to have the thing erected on his property and
he will reap about $60 thousand annually in a long-term lease.
But, hey, my cell phone is ringing. Gotta go. As for
this Vegas-like theme park of camouflaged transmission towers, it's not being put 'on hold.' In this weird new landscape there
is both pain and gain.
