A proposed 100-foot cell tower behind Sagaponack’s Village Hall, at 3175 Montauk Highway, which breezed through a single public hearing in February, is receiving renewed scrutiny from residents of the one-and-a-half-square-mile village. At issue is not necessarily the pole’s existence, but its placement: It would not be far from a lot line and adjacent house.
Should emergency communications be put in place atop the pole, as they likely would, it could be as high as 107 feet. Verizon, AT&T, the Dish Network, and T-Mobile are all expected to use the tower.
Sagaponack Village code calls for the tower to be set back at “a distance sufficient to substantially contain on site tower failure and to preserve the privacy and use of any adjoining properties.” The structure approved by the village, proposed by Ray Vergati of Homeland Towers, would stand roughly 30 feet from a rear property line and less than 100 feet from the house on the adjacent lot, which Foster Farm uses for staff housing.
“A very valued employee and her family live there,” said Lee Foster, who owns the parcel. “It is their home, and possibly the only single affordable residence in Sagaponack.”
Because the proposed tower is located on village land, Mr. Vergati told the village board at a February public hearing that it could apply the “Monroe test,” which basically weighs the public interest of a project versus local zoning laws, to avoid restrictions. In March, the board followed his advice, and ruled that public interest outweighed its own code, in effect waiving the setback rule.
“You hire a lawyer when you’re going to lose a house,” said Ms. Foster. “The biggest tragedy here is we had to seek legal advice, and we lose a sense of neighborliness.” Ms. Foster attended the public hearing in February, at which time she voiced concerns about the nearby residence and the fall zone of the tower. Another resident who was there said she had no problem with her cell service, and questioned the need for the monopole. However, more people spoke in favor of the tower, urging the board to speed ahead.
The board then closed the hearing rather than pursue Ms. Foster’s concerns, and approved a 55-year lease with Homeland Towers.
On May 15, Ms. Foster attended another village board meeting, again voicing her disquiet, which she says was met with silence by the board. “It doesn’t appear that there was going to be much else that we could do but hire a lawyer, she said. “It’s too close to the house. I don’t know how much better I can say that.”
Aside from the fall-zone issue — which is a real concern, she said, as the tower is in a wind-prone location less than two and a half miles from the ocean — Ms. Foster worries about radiation from 5G technology. “It’s one thing to look at it, but another to think about the invisible thing.”
“Our phone service in Sagaponack is terrible,” said Sagaponack Village Mayor Bill Tillotson. “We need something. We did look at doing some sort of Wi-Fi thing, but they only cover a very short distance, and to implement that through the village would be very expensive.”
He knew nothing about the controversy over 5G when he signed the contract in February, he said, adding that trustworthy information was hard to come by. “The industry says it’s no problem,” he said. “The American Cancer Society says it’s not a problem for now. Then, if you look at unofficial sites, people say you’re basically living in a microwave. Who do you believe?” Under state law, he said, “We’re specifically not allowed to weigh the effects of radiation when considering cell towers . . . “we can’t say anything about airplanes flying over, or what kinds of cars drive through our streets. We’re not an originator of power. That power comes to us from the state.”
“I went online to see what was available to block 5G,” said Mr. Tillotson. “I’ll be in the building right next to it too. Home Depot sells paint to block 5G. There’s some kind of clear film you can put on windows to block it, and a metal roof or siding eliminates it. We might very well repaint the interior of Village Hall just to be sure . . . nonetheless, I don’t see where I should launch the village into a tremendous lawsuit with a deep-pocketed company to release us from the contract.” He acknowledged that towers are ugly and that no one wants to live next to them.
The village will receive a minimum of $2,200 a month from Homeland Towers, or 40 percent of the gross revenue, whichever is more, to lease the land on which the tower would be built. “The residents could get a tax break out of this,” the mayor said. Over the course of the lease, he said, the village stands to make over $6 million.
“Until the most recent village board meeting, no one expressed opposition to it, but there have been myriad complaints about the lack of cell service,” said Mr. Tillotson. “We needed to know several months ago that there were objectors. We could try to break the contract, but when I asked the village attorney, Brian Egan, he said we have no basis to do that, and we’re getting into areas we’re prohibited to go, like radiation. So where do we go with that?”
“As we’ve talked to people, very few acknowledge they were aware of the public hearing,” said Ms. Foster. “The village discounted the fact that a residence is so close, just 30 yards to the base of the tower. We’d like to see it relocated.”
Mr. Vergati told the board in February that construction could begin by the middle of summer and the tower could be activated by Labor Day. He did not respond to a phone call for comment.
