Stonecrest residents considering filing lawsuit to remove cell tower

Residents living near a newly constructed T-Mobile cell tower are discussing filing a lawsuit to have the tower removed, citing the tower was illegally built on conditional commercial zoned property.

The cell tower is located off Evans Mill Road in District 5 of Stonecrest. Councilwoman Diane Adoma, who represents District 5, met with residents Feb. 6 to hear their concerns about the tower and discuss possible solutions. Residents Phillip Kelly and Virginia Pierce-Kelly said they discovered the cell tower being built behind their neighborhood last month.

Pierce-Kelly said she contacted Adoma to find out why a cell tower was being constructed without public notice; however, Adoma said she did not know the cell tower was being constructed.

“I had known idea what was going on and that’s how I found out about the tower,” Adoma said. “There is no way something of this magnitude should bypass a councilwoman, a district and a city.”

According to the Kelly’s research, the 199-foot-tall commercial cell phone tower was approved for installation next to First Lithonia Seventh Day Adventist Church, the church’s school, playground and two subdivisions.

Phillip Kelly said they discovered the company received building permits from the city and FCC licensing to allow installation of the tower near residential-zoned areas because the property is conditionally zoned commercial.

“The property was conditionally zoned as commercial for a daycare center,” Kelly said.

According to a document from DeKalb County, Raggedy Ann and Andy Child Care Centers Inc. submitted a rezoning application in 1976 to conditionally rezone the property from R-100 (residential) to C-2 (commercial) for a summer day camp. The document states that the daycare center would use the property for a day care camp only during summer months.

After Stonecrest incorporated, it adopted DeKalb County’s zoning laws. Residents are arguing that the tower was illegally approved because the property was conditionally zoned as commercial for the summer months, and that technically, the property is still zoned residential outside the summer months.

“[The company] lied in the application. The property was conditionally zoned as commercial for a daycare center,” Kelly said. “Instead of putting that detail in their application with the FCC, they fraudulently listed the property as commercial to the FCC. And that’s how they got the license to have the higher power rating, right next to the school, the playground, the church and the two subdivisions.”

Residents at the community meeting expressed concern that a public hearing wasn’t held before permits were approved.

Stonecrest spokesman Adrion Bell said because the property is zoned commercial, the tower was approved by right-of-use and the city can legally approve a permit for a commercial property without a public hearing.

“It meets FCC safety requirements,” Bell said. “It meets all of the requirements to be legal.”

T-Mobile and the property owner were invited to the community meeting, according to Adoma, but neither showed up. Adoma said she is not against technology, but she is concerned about the cell tower’s effect on the residents’ quality of life.

“What comes in our community impacts our quality of life. No one in here is saying we’re not innovative, we’re not technology-savvy, we don’t care about technology,” she said.

“We live in an era where you have to be concerned about technology, but with technology comes a series of challenges.

There is a delicate balance on bringing technology into the community verses privacy issues.”

Residents are now raising funds to retain legal council from Weissman Law Firm. Bell said the city had no comment on potential litigation.