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Community Corner

Judge Finds in Favor of Village Residents in Lawsuit Against ExteNet and Village of Pelham

Judge Barbara Zambelli, Westchester County Court issued her decision on the lawsuit brought by local residents against ExteNet and the Village of Pelham related to a cell phone Distributed Antenna System (DAS) Nodes installation back in September 2013. The DAS Nodes are small antennas which act as cell phone transmitters and were installed by ExteNet on behalf of T-Mobile. The residents' complained that three DAS Nodes were installed in residential areas of Pelham very close to homes and near two Pelham schools. The plaintiffs, the Kaplans, argued that the DAS Nodes were installed without proper notice, debate and procedural review as required by the Village's telecommunications code and the New York State environmental review legislation and without proper permitting. The Judge ruled in the plaintiffs' favor on each of the substantive points and therefore supported the plaintiffs' contention that ExteNet was required to comply with (and the Village should have required ExteNet to comply with) the Village’s telecommunication code (as well as NY’s environmental review statute) which requires that applications for such installations be subject to extensive public notice and debate and that telecommunications facilities be sited in commercial zones first and foremost. 
 
It is worth noting that the court ruled against each of ExteNet’s key arguments, including ExteNet’s claim of virtually total preemption of Village regulatory authority by state and federal law.  The judge has given ExteNet 150 days (a period that tracks an “FCC” shot clock period for purposes of the 1996 Telecommunications Act) within which to have a new application for a special permit acted upon by the Village or denied by the Village.  Should the 150 days expire without the application having been acted on or denied, the Judge will order all three DAS nodes removed.
 
The Village of Pelham, for its part, did not formally oppose the Kaplan's suit and went further to update the local Telecommunications Code in April of 2014 to strengthen its ability to site such cellular technologies appropriately.
 
While the court’s decision certainly represents a critical victory for concerned citizens in Pelham, there is more work to be done as the company ExteNet will possibly reapply to the Village of Pelham for the installation of DAS Nodes and go through the proper review process. A group of concerned citizens will speak out at upcoming Board of Trustee Meetings to urge the Village of Pelham Mayor and Trustees to work to limit cellular transmission devices to Pelham's commercial areas in accordance with its own Village code. All interested parties are welcome to attend this public meeting to learn more.

The upcoming meeting of the Village of Pelham Board of Trustees is July 8 at 7:30 at 195 Sparks Avenue.

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