IMPORTANT MEETING: Cell towers focus of DeKalb meeting Monday

GTCO-ATL URGENT NOTICE:  If you do not want a cell phone tower to be placed at your child's school or in a residentially zoned part of DeKalb County, you are urged to attend this important meeting on MONDAY at 6:30 p.m.  

A show of support is very much needed so that we may keep ALL of our children, ALL of our schools and ALL of our communities safe from the unwanted and unnecessary intrusion of these dangerous structures.  

If you would like to be reminded about the many, many reasons that we believe cell towers should not be permitted in residential areas or on public properties such as schools, please refer to the bottom of this article.

Meeting notice, From the AJC

By April Hunt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

DeKalb County, which is in the process of rewriting its county code, will hold an informational meeting Monday about possible new regulations on cell towers.

The placement of towers on county schools has been a hot button issue among residents for years. Residents can offer input on code changes at the meeting, which begins at 6:30 p.m. in Maloof Auditorium, 1300 Commerce St., Decatur.

Cell Towers Should Not Be Allowed in 

My Neighborhood or at My Child's School Because ...

1.)  A Non-Binding Advisory Referendum was conducted by the state legislature in July 2012 which showed overwhelming support for keeping cell towers OFF our school grounds.  62% of voters (more than 75,000 residents upon the final tally) voted NO when asked if telecommunications structures should be allowed on any public elementary, middle, high school or charter school in DeKalb County.  16 of 18 members of the DeKalb Delegation in the House also agreed by signing on to Rep. Karla Drenner's bill that would have banned this practice completely in DeKalb.  The bill was killed in committee by someone who does not even live here and who has been found guilty of DUI three times (Rep. Chuck Sims - R).  Obviously, his judgment is questionable and if it had not been for his decision to stop the bill, we would not even be discussing this issue right now.  

2.)  100% of the communities that were actually facing the possibility of a cell tower at their local school voted NO on the referendum, stating they do NOT want cell towers on school grounds.  Their voices have never been officially heard as the school board approved the decision without giving proper notification to the homeowners at any of the schools and giving a misleading flyer to parents which resulted in a failed attempt to hold public meetings on the subject.  Even then, the majority of the board members themselves did not even attend these meetings.  There was no Superintendent at the time the issue was voted on and nearly every board member (except Dr. Walker) later stated in a public meeting hosted by Crossroads News that they would have voted differently if they had to make the decision again.  And, in fact, the county commissioners themselves have already made a joint statement aganst the towers.

3.)  Cell Towers lower property values.  Fact.  Most of our county is already suffering from a decline in property values as a result of the housing crisis.  

4.)  RF radiation from a cell tower is constant, background radiation that you cannot escape from.  We know that high power radiation causes cancer.  What researchers are still debating is the long-term effects of low power exposure.  However, there has been enough evidence to cause the world's leading authority on cancer, the World Health Organization, to upgrade it to a "possible human carcinogen."  This announcement was made PRIOR to the school board's decision and should have been considered RELEVANT new information that would have given them cause to vote differently than other school boards in our area.  Their justification that it has taken place elsewhere is not enough for us to say that it is okay for us here.  In fact, this one area could be a way to help DeKalb appeal to new homebuyers and help restore our schools to a higher standard where we place the lives and education of children FIRST.  

5.)  Cell towers are aesthetically unpleasant.  Zoning laws should take into consideration what the residents in an area want or do not want to see when looking out their windows or driving through their neighborhood.  I do not know anyone who would want to be within sight of a cell tower.

5.)  Crime is invited to our communities when we place cell towers near our homes.  Constant 24 hour access is provided to our school grounds and, for many, to the back doors and back yards of our homes that are next to the schools.  The copper theft in the metro area has been widely reported and there is no security provided to keep unwanted intruders from using these parking areas to scope out our homes, or watch our children on their playgrounds or as they walk in their own neighborhoods.  This is a danger we do not need to add to the list for our police force, which is already spread thin.

6.)  The fall zone of a tower is necessary to be one and a half times the total height of a tower.  If this is not followed in a residential area, then you are placing a tower near structures that are occupied by people most of the time.  If a tower were to fall over for any reason, human life and private and public property is at risk.  Will the county's insurance cover the damage that would occur in these cases?  If not, they need to keep the cell towers in commercial and industrial areas as they are now.

7.)  Dangers of falling ice and debris.  Many injuries can happen in winter if ice collects at the top of a tower overnight and then large portions fall to the ground as the sun warms it later in the day.

8.)  Cell tower climbers could fall traumatizing children or residents who witness it.  It is currently known as the most dangerous job in America.  In fact, people on the ground could be killed by something as simple as a screwdriver falling out of a tower climber's pocket because of the rate of speed and resulting force by which it would hit anything in its way at ground level.  We've seen what a falling limb can do when it strikes a child.  We do not need to place more of these dangers above our children's heads.

9.)  It is NOT necessary to place cell towers closer to our homes or at our schools.  We have plenty of towers in our area as they each can transmit from 5 - 15 miles and federal law mandates that they exhaust all possibilities for co-location prior to building new structures.  If they want to build new towers, it is purely a competitive game of owning a tower closer so that the competition has to sublease from them instead of the other way around.  There are NO dead zones in all of DeKalb County, as confirmed by the FCC's latest map on 3G nationwide expansion.  Unless a cell company can prove it actually NEEDS for our zoning laws to change, why would we offer to make things easier for them (and more expensive for ourselves)?  They have all the access they need right now.  They may just have to pay a little more to provide the service by utilizing the existing towers and subleasing options available to them.  This is not an industry that needs our help in order to profit.  They are one of the richest industries in the world right now, just behind oil and war.  

10.)  Distrust of government is a big issue here right now. The Snowden case with the federal government already has citizens on edge about whether or not the U.S. government is spying on ordinary citizens, intercepting their wireless calls without search warrants or without any justifiable cause.  Citizens in DeKalb are already very aware of the allegations of corruption in various levels of our government.  We do not need more reasons to distrust you or be suspicious of those who are supposed to represent us.  What we DO need are reasons to trust.

CELL TOWERS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED 

IN ANY PART OF OUR COUNTY 

THAT IS NOT CURRENTLY ZONED FOR THEM.   

Please, represent us in the way that we have asked you to.  Do not allow the tainted money of the telecommunications industry to sway you.