If you’re wondering why you should care about cell tower installations in Upper Brookville, this page will answer your questions. 

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Will my property values be affected by a cell tower installation?

Your property values, especially if you are an abutter or live near a cell tower site, will be devalued anywhere up to 25% or more.

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Please care about your neighbors. “What happens to one, happens to all.” You may not think your property values are affected because you live farther away, but what about your neighbor whose house abuts these installations?  Experience among real estate agents and home buyers indicates that many will not purchase property adjacent to a cell tower. 

 

Will my cell service be improved?

It may not be improved. There’s no way of knowing the extent to which this tower, and possibly subsequent towers, will fix dropped calls and interrupted service. They may not.  We won’t know until we have the facts, like the drive test data, which is the only way we will be able to make this determination.  Wait until you have real data to make up your mind or you could be disappointed.  If one cell tower is built that doesn’t remedy gaps, others that don’t meet our needs will likely follow.

 

Are there other ways to improve cell service that would have less impact on me?

It is reasonable to ask if the Distributed Antenna System (DAS) already installed on telephone poles in the Village might offer space to carriers looking to improve cellular service to residents. To our knowledge, these brown boxes currently rent space to just one carrier, with room for more. Might this “co-location” of multiple antennas be a lower-tech, minimally invasive option to improve our cellular service without resorting to tall towers as a solution?  

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In August 2022, Tesla signed a deal with Verizon to provide enough satellite coverage next year to end dead zones and dropped calls made on your 5G phone. If satellite service is right around the corner, why would the Village sign a lease for a cell tower that could soon become obsolete and would be with us for a minimum of 45 years?

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We wonder if the Village Trustees have studied alternatives to tall cell towers.  New technologies are fast arriving and may be right around the corner.  If we can wait, does it make sense to explore satellite and other technologies that could be better suited to our needs for more minimally invasive, accurate solutions?

 

Will the landscape and character of the neighborhood change?

Yes. You may not like the new look on the horizon line when a tall tower rises above the tree-line.  Even if it’s covered with fake branches, it may not be aesthetically pleasing.

 

Do I need to worry about even more cell towers being installed in our Village?

Our Village fits into a larger plan of site developers, like Crown Castle, who are aggressively rolling out multiple tall towers without regional planning or interest in resident needs. Telecom companies are building as many towers as quickly as possible, as cheaply as possible, and in the easiest locations possible. To avoid pushback from residents, they target municipalities with weak codes that pose little to no threat to their business goals. 

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Site developers are erecting towers in areas where providers are not even hosting 5G service yet. They are racing to build wireless infrastructure so they can rent antenna space for 5G to carriers like Verizon.  Each tower guarantees developers lucrative monthly rental checks in perpetuity.

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While these towers are being promoted as an answer to poor cell service in some parts of the Village, are they in fact a Trojan horse for installing 5G small antenna service in Upper Brookville in the not-so-distant future?

 

What happens after a cell tower is installed?

Trustees give up control over a cell tower once the lease is signed, including the number of antennas that are attached and how tall they are.  Potentially, up to 48 antennas can be attached and the tower can be heightened up to 160 feet.  You might not like the look of a tower extending 20-40 feet above the originally proposed model.

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In addition, Radio Frequency (RF) power output is often increased without monitoring if RF frequency output remains within FCC guidelines. Cell towers have been known to operate for years, unchecked, at levels over 600% of what these guidelines recommend.

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Carriers often increase the RF power output without any requirement to monitor whether radio frequencies remain within FCC guidelines. Cell tower output has been known to run unchecked at levels over 600% of what these guidelines recommend. 

 

What long-term effects does this have for me and my family?

For decades to come, you, your children, and grandchildren will be living with the decisions our Village makes now. One day, you may not like the effect of these towers, but there will be nothing we can do about it.  Once the towers are up, and the Village has signed over its control to the site developer, that’s it!

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