T-Mobile notes that the facility is crucial for meeting telecommunication demands and remedying a gap in wireless service in the area. It was denied a permit to construct a 120-foot cell tower with a 10-foot lightning rod on the land it has been leasing for over a decade from the Lakeland Regional High School.
The company says that the borough and its planning board have based their decision upon the adverse environmental effects of radio frequency emissions, which makes the rejection illegal.
According to the lawsuit, the federal Telecommunications Act doesn’t allow states and localities to regulate cell towers based on environmental concerns, which also include health concerns. Several people on the board have made it clear that they think the tower would be detrimental to the residents’ health.
I feel that T-Mobile has not demonstrated clearly the need for such. I also feel that this is very detrimental to the neighborhood . . . There is no benefit to the Borough.” – Planning Board Chairman Gilbert Foulon
It’s [not] safe for the children. And I think we owe it to this town to listen to its residents . . . and think about the students.” – Planning Board member Leonard
T-Mobile signed a 25-year lease for the land where it wanted to build the tower in 2010 but decided to begin the work last year only, which is when it decided to submit an application to the planning board.
When it filed an application in March, the company was asked by the board to consider other alternative sites, which, according to T-Mobile‘s legal counsel, was not a legal requirement.
Despite that, T-Mobile did consider the alternate sites but it found that none of them were suitable for the purpose.T-Mobile has requested the court to declare that the planning board wrongly denied its application to build and operate the telecom facility and order it to grant the company the necessary permissions.
