Hearing Set for Tower Case

Juliet Erickson and Peter Lockyer filed multiple lawsuits against Nevada County to halt the construction of a cell tower near their home in Penn Valley, California. The couple and the attorneys for Nevada County will meet in court next week to argue their cases. The California couple alleges that the cell tower site had previously been designated as a “visually important ridgeline” prior to March 2011, according to The Union. The county argues that the designation was addressed during the approval process for the cell tower — a process that preceded the building permit application filing. “The Lockyers are asking the judge for a writ of mandate (a court order to a government agency) to strike the permit’s management plan that the county is requiring as a condition of approval and to hold the county liable for a ‘taking’ of the Lockyers’ land. Nevada County is asking the judge to deny the writ of mandate At issue in the management plan is a deed restriction that requires the couple to maintain a treed section of their property that the county says is necessary to screen a proposed office/garage. The Lockyers say the deed restriction is actually to maintain screening for the cell tower,” The Union reported. The parties will appear at 1:30pm on December 18 in front of Nevada County Superior Court Sean Dowling in the four-year-old case.