Attention Bedford, NY Residents!  We Should Not Allow our Town Board to Agree to the Proposed Settlement with VZ Wireless to build a cell tower on Stone Hill Rd.  Support Us in Demanding the Town Board to Change Course on this Grievous Error in Judgement!

We are asking all residents of Bedford, NY to join us in a full-throated rejection of our Town Board’s proposal to settle with Verizon Wireless (“VZW”) and approve a permit to build a 150+ ft cell tower in our town at 68 Stone Hill Rd.

We all must strongly consider the precedent this sets and ask ourselves, if the town laws can be tossed aside to approve this settlement and site a 150 ft + cell tower 40 ft off the road when the town law requires a 165 ft setback from the road, what else can we expect this Town Board or future Town Boards to approve on the basis of this precedent?

The reasons our Town Board has said they need to agree to this unfortunate outcome can be distilled down to two main points:

1) We have MULTIPLE GAPS in cellular service coverage in our town.

• We agree and it should be lost on no one that there is no single cell tower solution that will provide cellular coverage to our multiple gaps in cellular service coverage (the “Coverage Gaps”).
• Our multiple Coverage Gaps will not be solved with one cell tower, so how does our Town Board propose to solve this problem?  Where is the Town Board’s plan to address ALL our Coverage Gaps?
• Alternative technology (i.e. smaller cellular infrastructure) can be used to address this issue, as was proposed by at least one third party wireless consultant.  THIS SHOULD BE OUR FOCUS AS A TOWN.
• A 150 ft tower on Stone Hill Rd. provides little additional coverage vs. using a 50 ft utility pole in the right of way!
  
• Without a comprehensive plan to address all coverage gaps and with the precedent set by approving the proposed cell tower at 68 Stone Hill Rd., we will all but ensure more cell towers will be built in Bedford.  This will not end after one cell tower is built.

 

2) We’re going to lose a litigation with Verizon Wireless (“VZW”) so we must settle to achieve the best outcome possible.

• The Town Board’s position that “we need to settle with VZW because this is a fight we can’t win, as our hands are tied by Federal law (under the Telecommunications Act of 1996)” is NOT supported by the facts.
• Municipalities across the U.S, including in New York State, including in the Southern District of the U.S. District Court, where VZW filed its lawsuit against the Town of Bedford, have engaged in litigation with wireless carriers (and companies that build cell towers for wireless carriers) in this exact fight over whether to allow cell towers to be constructed in violation of the local law (our town code) and WON.  This is not a fight we chose but it is one we shouldn’t shy away from because it is right for our town.
• The cost of this litigation is an investment worth making to preserve our town’s historic character, charm and natural beauty.

WE ASK YOU TO SUPPORT US AND DEMAND OUR TOWN BOARD ACT IN THE BEST INTEREST OF OUR TOWN!

REJECT THE VZW SETTLEMENT OFFER TO PUT A CELL TOWER AT 68 STONE HILL RD. AND FIGHT FOR AN OUTCOME THAT BEST SERVES OUR TOWN - A COMPREHENSIVE WIRELESS COVERAGE PLAN WITHOUT NEW CELL TOWERS.

Sincerely,

Your Friends on Stone Hill Rd

(p.s. Please also join us by telling the Bedford Town Board directly we want cell service without towers!  Email the Town Board at the following addresses: supervisor@bedfordny.gov, kgalligan@bedfordny.gov, bbittker@bedfordny.gov, smccaine@bedfordny.gov, acastillo@bedfordny.gov, tcatoliato@bedfordny.gov)

 

FOR ADDITIONAL DETAIL PLEASE READ ON...

1) We have MULTIPLE GAPS in cellular service coverage in our town – Response in More Detail

We agree and it should be lost on no one that there is no single cell tower solution that will provide cellular coverage to our multiple gaps in cellular service coverage (the “Coverage Gaps”).  So we ask the Town Board, what is your plan for providing cellular coverage to the gaps in coverage that remain once this proposed cell tower at 68 Stone Hill Rd is built?  This proposed tower at 68 Stone Hill Rd. would NOT provide cellular coverage to the historic district of Bedford Village.  It would NOT provide cellular coverage to the Huntington Mall area.  NOR WOULD IT provide cellular coverage to the gap in coverage in the Farms neighborhood.  And would it NOT provide cellular coverage to the gap around the Hickory Lane neighborhood.  It would provide coverage to only approximately a 4.1 square mile area right around the cell tower (provided there is not a hill in the way, which there is directly behind the proposed tower).

We DEMAND that the Town Board produce a comprehensive wireless / cellular service coverage plan for the Town of Bedford (the “Comprehensive Wireless Service Plan”) before agreeing to permit a large cell tower in our town.

Without a Comprehensive Wireless Service Plan and with the remaining cellular service gaps AFTER the proposed cell tower at 68 Stone Hill Rd were allowed to be built, it logically follows MORE CELL TOWERS WILL BE FORCED ON OUR TOWN.  We will have demonstrated to anyone paying attention we as a town are not willing to fight for the right solution for our town.  We will have demonstrated, and set a profoundly harmful precedent in the process, that we as a town are willing to set aside our local zoning code to approve the construction of cell towers, impact on town, community and neighbors be damned.  We will have made ourselves a prime target for all other wireless carriers who want to address their coverage gaps in our town with more cell towers.

How does a tower on the Village Green sound - not allowed by our town code?  As preposterous as this sounds, apparently, the Town Board believes that they have the authority to waive any and all provisions of our town law they find inconvenient in pursuit of a settlement.

This proposed settlement represents a dangerous precedent and a very slippery slope, which has the potential to be applied far more broadly than to the permitting of cell towers in Bedford.

 

2) We’re going to lose a litigation with Verizon Wireless (“VZW”) so we must settle to achieve the best outcome possible – Response in More Detail

We strongly disagree.  VZW and its attorneys have bullied our town and cowed the Town Board into pursuing a settlement that effectively throws one neighborhood and group of people under the bus by considering an agreement to approve a cell tower and industrial complex a mere 40’ from one of our bucolic country roads because the Town Board has said, in effect, this is a fight we will lose.  So we ask, what is the basis for this position?  What diligence and litigation research and analysis supports this assumption?  It is not enough to make this statement and hope its recipients take it at face value.

The Town Board must support this position with facts.  Even a cursory Google search reveals lawsuits of this kind by wireless carriers are not rare.  We should not be surprised to learn this is straight out of the wireless carrier playbook on how to bully a town and erect a cell tower.  However, if one took our Town Board’s communications to the community at face value, you’d be very surprised to learn municipalities win lawsuits just like ours regularly.  We do have options, and we should fight and litigate to achieve the right outcome for the Town of Bedford.  COMPREHENSIVE CELLULAR COVERAGE WITHOUT ADDITIONAL CELL TOWERS.