Marblehead neighbors head to court over cell antenna plan
MARBLEHEAD — Six Village Street residents have gone to court over the Planning Board's approval of a special permit that will allow a cell phone company to install new antennas on the top of the town's water tank on Tower Way.
The Planning Board voted last month to issue the permit to MetroPCS, a wireless carrier that proposed six new wireless antennas and two other antennas, as well as related equipment.
The company responded to a request for proposals issued by the town and, according to a complaint filed yesterday in Salem Superior Court, entered a lease that will net the town $127,419 a year for the first five years and $147,713 per year for the five years after that.
But the abutters, led by Barbara Karademos, say that the Planning Board violated the town's own zoning bylaws in granting the permit to allow the equipment to be installed in a residential district.
Named in the suit are the town's water and sewer commissioners and MetroPCS, the Chelmsford-based company that wants to install the antennas.
There are already 12 antennas on the tower, for which the town receives rent. The abutters say in their lawsuit that those antennas were illegally installed in 2005 and 2007.
The rest of the abutters — Jeannette Byors, Clare Finan, Rachel Gerny, Richard Hardwick and David Smith — are also concerned about a lack of sufficient information about the need for the new antennas.
Prior to a hearing last May, Karademos told a reporter that she was also concerned about reports that microwave radiation from the antennas could be harmful.
Town officials point to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which limits the restrictions local communities can place on companies that want to erect cell phone towers.
No hearings have been scheduled in the suit.
