Hello neighbors! We have updates for you regarding the cell upgrade on Poinsettia. Apologies for the lengthiness, there is a lot to report on! We appreciate everyone’s ongoing attention and involvement in this.

Summary:

We discovered that the equipment Crown Castle currently has on this utility pole was illegally installed, without a permit from our City (the original permit from 2007 had expired and they installed unpermitted equipment in 2012/2014).  After long delays, the City sent a letter asking Crown Castle to remove the equipment.  Three days later, Crown Castle submitted their revised plans which the City quickly approved.  We are now working on an appeal.  

Details: 

June 4 - 19th:                                                                                                             

Multiple Public Records Act Requests were submitted to the City for correspondence between the City and Crown Castle as well as copies of both the original 2007 permit (when Crown Castle initially installed equipment on this pole) and the permit from 2012-2014, when Crown Castle showed up unannounced, in the middle of the night, to replace the equipment.

June 18th:                                                                                                                                       

We received notice that Crown Castle withdrew their set of plans in order to redesign the radio shroud. We were told that they would be re-submitting revised plans in approximately 3 weeks. 

July 24th:                                                                                                                       

Subcontractors for Crown Castle arrived at the site, put out orange cones, blocked a driveway and public parking and prevented trash from being picked up. Our public works department promptly had them leave because they did not have a right of way access permit and if they did, they would have needed to provide notice to the neighborhood.  Crown Castle appears to work outside of MB codes, and without significant consequence.

July 29th:                                                                                                                             

We received a subset of the requested documentation. The drawings of the 2007 permit, part of the records request, were not included.

August 12th:                                                                                                                                 

After two months of delay, we received confirmation of what we had suspected - there was no permit for the Crown Castle antenna installed in 2012-2014.  This equipment was illegally installed.  We continue to dispute that no equipment today reflects the 2007 permit/drawings and hence, should be removed. According to MBMC 13.04.100,  'A wireless facility installed without a wireless encroachment permit (except for those exempted by this chapter) must be removed within thirty (30) days of notification by the City.  

The City sent a letter to Crown Castle asking them to remove the antenna no later than September 11th.  A request that we had been making for 2 months, given no permit was able to be produced. 

August 15th:                                                                                                                               

Three days after being notified that they must remove the illegal equipment, Crown Castle submitted their revised application.  They have reduced the size of the radio shroud as a result of the push back received from the community when they initially submitted (a small win). 

August 19th:                                                                                                                                   

Two months after the initial request, the drawings for the 2007 permit were finally provided.  No additional permits were ever produced.  These drawings confirmed that what exists on the utility pole today does not match the original permitted equipment. 

August 22nd:                                                                                                                                 

The City approved the resubmitted permit application from Crown Castle, undeterred by the fact that they were in violation of our City Municipal Code and had illegally installed the existing equipment.  

And this is where we stand today.  As residents, we are completely baffled and disheartened by our City's response and lack of action in this matter.  We understood from the beginning that telecommunication rules are federally regulated and individual cities have limited control over installations and upgrades.  However when it became clear that the equipment was installed illegally, our city should have acted hastily to demand that it be removed. Instead, we were stalled long enough to allow Crown Castle to resubmit their plans which were promptly approved.  This does not make sense and has been beyond frustrating; it should not fall on MB residents to identify infractions against our town’s municipal codes and have to repeatedly request for action to be taken.  

Next steps: We will be submitting an appeal and will continue putting forth our best efforts to fight this cell upgrade.  We will reach out with another update once we know more.  If anyone has contacts that would be helpful to utilize/hire in support of our residents, please reach out.