Despite legal setback, Homeland begins construction
After years of legal battles, Homeland Towers has started construction on a 95-foot cell tower overlooking the Cold Spring Cemetery.Work began this month on a cell tower in Nelsonville. (Photo provided)
A state judge ruled in December that the company could not dig up a shared access road to bury power cables. In response, it plans to string the lines on utility poles before routing them underground at the boundary of the parcel, which is located at the end of the private Rockledge Road in Nelsonville.
According to revised plans filed with the village on March 19, the gravel access road will be widened to allow emergency vehicles to access the tower, which will be disguised as a fir tree or “monopine.”
Mayor Chris Winward said in a statement that taking the lines overhead did not require Homeland to submit a revised site plan. Instead, the building inspector determined that the off-site, overhead power lines were “a field change not requiring further approval.”
Homeland Towers did not return a phone message seeking comment.
The December ruling by state Judge Gina Capone, in response to a lawsuit filed by neighbors of the site, said other changes to the access road besides digging were OK, subject to a building permit Nelsonville issued in 2020.
For Neighbors, A Losing Battle
July 2017 Homeland Towers and Verizon file an application with the Village of Nelsonville to construct a 110-foot tower on a 9.6-acre parcel owned by Doug Logan, who manages the Cold Spring Cemetery.
November 2017 The village suggests an alternative site: a 4-acre wooded tract it owns behind the American Legion on Cedar Street. The idea is soon discarded.
May 2018 The Zoning Board of Appeals votes 3-2 to deny a special-use permit for the tower. The majority says a 110-foot structure would have an “adverse visual impact.” The village attorney warns that Homeland will likely sue.
June 2018 Homeland and Verizon sue in federal court, asking a judge to order the village to issue the permit. AT&T also sues.
December 2018 Mayor Bill O’Neill urges Philipstown to resume negotiations with Homeland to place a tower at the town highway garage, which might end the litigation against Nelsonville. Instead, in July 2019, the Town Board approves the settlement of a federal lawsuit filed against Philipstown by Homeland and Verizon, clearing the way for a 120-foot tower on Vineyard Road near the intersection of routes 9 and 301.
January 2020 Nelsonville approves a settlement: Homeland will reduce the tower to 95 feet and the village will issue a building permit. Logan announces he plans to sell his parcel to Homeland, rather than lease it. He says his alternative plan was to construct up to five homes, “which would make a real mess, right up against the cemetery.”
A rendering from a consultant’s report of what a 95-foot monopine would look from Cold Spring Cemetery.
June 2020 Nelsonville issues a building permit after the Cold Spring Fire Co. allows an exemption for the access road, which is too steep, because the risk of an emergency at the tower is low. The permit allows the firm to widen and resurface the road, remove trees and dig trenches to bury power lines.
December 2023 A state judge rules that Homeland cannot dig trenches but that it can make other changes to the access road under the 2020 building permit.
In a letter to The Current (below), seven neighbors expressed dismay that construction has begun, charging that Homeland “has endless funds and favorable federal telecom laws to help them steamroll tiny towns like ours.”
In Fishkill, meanwhile, neighbors are battling a Homeland Towers proposal for a 150-foot tower along Route 9 just north of the Putnam County border and the Carol Lane neighborhood. The tower would be constructed behind the commercial building that houses Lisikatos Construction, Burke Services and other businesses.
A former longtime national magazine editor, Rowe has worked at newspapers in Michigan, Idaho and South Dakota and has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Northwestern University. He can be reached at [email protected].
With a heavy heart, we report that Homeland Towers has begun construction on its 95-foot cell tower above the Cold Spring Cemetery.
For those of us who treasure our historic cemetery in our daily walks and runs, who sit by our loved ones buried there, for the schoolchildren at Manitou, all will be in the shadow of this tower. For those concerned about the endangered bats in those woods, Homeland rushed to cut trees before they could roost (state law required it be done by April 1). And let’s not forget the families who will live with the tower just feet from their bedroom windows.
We have fought the location of this tower for more than seven years. It has been a tortured and expensive battle; Homeland Towers has endless funds and favorable federal telecom laws to help it steamroll tiny villages like ours and others in the Hud-son Valley and beyond. We have even been contacted by other municipalities hoping for tips on defending themselves from Homeland’s dog-and-pony show.
Some villages have successfully changed a tower’s location, but not ours. Instead, we became divided. When the Nelsonville Village Board voted for a settlement [in January 2020] on the advice of the insurance attorney (too expensive to fight!), it left us feeling forsaken and angry. The immediate neighbors were saddled with enormous legal costs and a battle that lasted for years.
Seven years is a long time. Our need for more cell towers has changed. Since the application for the tower was submitted in 2017, we have seen Homeland build two other towers nearby, and there are two more promised on Route 9. We have also constructed a tower at the town garage on Fishkill Road to fix the emergency radio needs Homeland argued they would provide. 5G has become the technology of choice, making cell towers archaic and obsolete. Homeland premised its application on this need. It should be re-examined. We ask that the application be reopened to determine if the basis for the permit remains valid. We don’t need this tower.
Homeland pushes on regardless of need. It has already paid the caretaker of the cemetery for the land and will make money by leasing space to the big telecom companies. Homeland is determined not to lose on this investment, even if it is no longer needed, especially because it will set a precedent that our SASS (Scenic Areas of Statewide Significance) regions are no longer protected from towers.
Most troubling is that our village representatives have refused to re-engage in a permitting process for the newly revised plans. The board originally insisted on an elaborate road leading to the tower that would allow fire trucks and emergency vehicles to access the structure. Now that the court has denied Homeland any right to dig on the neighbor’s property, Homeland claims it can build this tower with no change at all.
Why is the village not following the procedures in place to ensure safety through compliance with our codes? We ask that Nelsonville follow proper permitting procedures and that the board review the newly revised plans.
Remember, we are your neighbors and, despite all, we have to live together in the shadow of our decisions.
This letter was also signed by Harold Akselrad, David Eisenbach, Gregg Matthews, Jeff Rossi and Richard Villella of Nelsonville and Jason Biafore of Cold Spring.
They could not have chosen a worse location for their tower. Thinking this Memorial Day that it’s insulting to the memory of our war heroes – and anyone else resting there – some would call it ‘sacrilege.’ Surely, they are rolling in their graves.
With a heavy heart, we report that Homeland Towers has begun construction on its 95-foot cell tower above the Cold Spring Cemetery.
For those of us who treasure our historic cemetery in our daily walks and runs, who sit by our loved ones buried there, for the schoolchildren at Manitou, all will be in the shadow of this tower. For those concerned about the endangered bats in those woods, Homeland rushed to cut trees before they could roost (state law required it be done by April 1). And let’s not forget the families who will live with the tower just feet from their bedroom windows.
We have fought the location of this tower for more than seven years. It has been a tortured and expensive battle; Homeland Towers has endless funds and favorable federal telecom laws to help it steamroll tiny villages like ours and others in the Hud-son Valley and beyond. We have even been contacted by other municipalities hoping for tips on defending themselves from Homeland’s dog-and-pony show.
Some villages have successfully changed a tower’s location, but not ours. Instead, we became divided. When the Nelsonville Village Board voted for a settlement [in January 2020] on the advice of the insurance attorney (too expensive to fight!), it left us feeling forsaken and angry. The immediate neighbors were saddled with enormous legal costs and a battle that lasted for years.
Seven years is a long time. Our need for more cell towers has changed. Since the application for the tower was submitted in 2017, we have seen Homeland build two other towers nearby, and there are two more promised on Route 9. We have also constructed a tower at the town garage on Fishkill Road to fix the emergency radio needs Homeland argued they would provide. 5G has become the technology of choice, making cell towers archaic and obsolete. Homeland premised its application on this need. It should be re-examined. We ask that the application be reopened to determine if the basis for the permit remains valid. We don’t need this tower.
Homeland pushes on regardless of need. It has already paid the caretaker of the cemetery for the land and will make money by leasing space to the big telecom companies. Homeland is determined not to lose on this investment, even if it is no longer needed, especially because it will set a precedent that our SASS (Scenic Areas of Statewide Significance) regions are no longer protected from towers.
Most troubling is that our village representatives have refused to re-engage in a permitting process for the newly revised plans. The board originally insisted on an elaborate road leading to the tower that would allow fire trucks and emergency vehicles to access the structure. Now that the court has denied Homeland any right to dig on the neighbor’s property, Homeland claims it can build this tower with no change at all.
Why is the village not following the procedures in place to ensure safety through compliance with our codes? We ask that Nelsonville follow proper permitting procedures and that the board review the newly revised plans.
Remember, we are your neighbors and, despite all, we have to live together in the shadow of our decisions.
This letter was also signed by Harold Akselrad, David Eisenbach, Gregg Matthews, Jeff Rossi and Richard Villella of Nelsonville and Jason Biafore of Cold Spring.
They could not have chosen a worse location for their tower. Thinking this Memorial Day that it’s insulting to the memory of our war heroes – and anyone else resting there – some would call it ‘sacrilege.’ Surely, they are rolling in their graves.