Concerned about everything from honeybees to helicopters, many Barrington Hills residents are fighting attempts to install a cell tower.
“I am not opposed to improving cellular communications here,” said Meryl Cannon, one of 19 residents who spoke Wednesday at a Village Board hearing. “I am opposed to the construction of a 190-foot cell tower that would destroy our beautiful rural vistas and decrease our property values.”
Boston-based American Tower Corp. would put a free-standing tower in the northeast corner of the Barrington Countryside Park District’s 15-acre horse-riding center on Bateman Road. Pending village approval, the company would pay the Park District an initial fee of about $124,000 and $3,100 to $4,100 a month during the 30-year lease.
Four carriers — AT&T, Sprint-Nextel, U.S. Cellular and Verizon — have signed sublease options, but approval is no sure bet. The Village Board has the final say, but the Zoning Board rejected the proposal. With five cellular towers on the periphery of the village of 28 square miles, dropped signals are common, including 10 percent of mobile 911 calls each month, officials said. A technology committee last year recommended four sites, the first of which would be the district site.
Many agree that service is inadequate in the rural village, but the proposed tower has become a lightning rod for encroaching development.
Though the tower would not reach the Federal Aviation Administration’s 200-foot minimum height for warning lights, some residents are concerned it still might be required, while others fear the lack of visibility would cause the tower to be clipped by a plane, helicopter or hot-air balloon. Others worried about the environmental impact, ranging from dwindling honeybee colonies to health hazards for humans.
“I don’t want my bedroom, and my children’s bedroom, to be in the footprint of the beam pattern of those cell sites because they’re emitting electromagnetic, high-powered radiation into our bodies and into our brains,” Daniel Juffernbruch said.
Saying concerns were exaggerated, Jan Goss took the minority view.
“I get my calls dropped all the time,” Goss said.
