Cell phones. You can't live with them and you can't live without them. But everybody seems to want to live without the cell towers that accompany cell phone systems as a necessary evil.

Cell towers are an instrumental part of the mechanism that picks up messages from our phones and transmits messages to our phones. In order to have consistent uniform coverage, cell phone providers need cell towers. And they need a lot of them. The more users, the more the need for cell phone towers.

But over the years people have raised health concerns over cell towers. Some question whether these towers emit harmful energy, and whether they can make people sick. Notwithstanding the resolution to this issue, just about everybody in every community feels that these towers are just plain ugly. Very few people, it would appear, want to have cell towers in their community.

The federal government has already got into the act and has passed legislation which makes it easier for cell phone companies to place towers in communities that don't want them. Now when cell operators appear before planning boards and seek approval for a cell tower location, federal law more than evens the playing field in their favor.

Florida is currently considering its own law which will make it even easier for cell companies to erect these towers. If HB1495 becomes a law, local governments will be limited in their ability to prohibit the construction of cell towers. In addition, the law would require the Florida DEP to evaluate available sites on state owned properties to house these antennas. The Florida law is predicated on the need to have continuously good and uninterrupted service for public health and emergency purposes. But many believe that the true purpose behind HB1495 is to provide even further support for the powerful cellular telephone industry. The more towers, the more customers, the more money these giants make.

Many municipalities are sensitive to the wishes of the citizens to limit residential sites in which these often ugly towers can be erected. And laws which allow towers in certain locations and don't allow them in other locations can withstand federal scrutiny as long as enough sites are left available in municipalities to ensure reliable, uninterrupted service.

But, it takes a brave municipality to fight the cell phone industry. For example Carlsbad, California has agreed to pay a wireless provider $250,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging that a tower owner was improperly denied a land use permit. In that case, many residents appeared before the planning commission and the governing body to oppose the proposed tower. As it turns out, there were already an ample number of these cell towers in the community and residents did not want even one more. But the cell provider sued and the municipality believed that it had to settle.

Recently, residence of Bethel, Connecticut expressed concerns over a proposal by a cell phone company to replace a 90-foot cell phone tower in a residential neighborhood with a 130-foot tower. And with the addition of a "whip antennas" which would be placed atop the tower, the entire construction would reach 148 feet in the air, 58 feet higher than what currently exists.

The truth of the matter is that cell phones are a part of society and they are not going away. And cell towers need to be installed throughout the country in order for these devices to function reliably and without interruption.

But, money is always a factor. Cell towers represent money to the property owners that host the towers. They represent tax income to local governments that house these towers. They represent a lot of money to a lot of people.

Of course this is a very strong industry with strong lobby support at both the federal level and the state levels. It is hard to fight a cell tower proposal. Hard, but certainly not impossible.

Residents should not be quiet when a plan for an inappropriate placement of a tower is being proposed by one of these companies. They need to organize, they need to speak out, and they need to seek competent legal representation.

It is hard to fight City Hall when there is so much money at stake. But, it is not impossible. Planning, coupled with adequate professional assistance, may yield a suitable outcome.

It is important for community groups to organize and to take action at the first moment they learn that an inappropriate proposal is being made. The opposition often takes time to become organized and therefore it is important that these efforts begin at the earliest opportunity possible. Yes, you can and should fight City Hall if your community is being treated unfairly.

Published: May 13, 2004

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Stuart Lieberman, Esq. writes about environmental issues. He was a New Jersey Deputy Attorney General assigned to the State Department of Environmental Protection from 1986 to 1990. Currently he is a shareholder in the environmental law firm of Lieberman & Blecher, P.C., located in Princeton, New Jersey. Stuart can be reached at slieberman@liebermanblecher.com.