UPDATE Bay Communications III, LLC filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Rockland (ME) over its denial of a 120-foot tower planned for construction on a vacant commercial lot, reported the Courier-Gazette. In February, the city voted against the project due to resident complaints about reducing property values, negative aesthetics, and health concerns.
The lawsuit claims the city is impeding federal law with its decision by not enabling the company to close a significant gap in coverage. Bay Communications lawyers cited the national policy to “make available, so far as possible, to all people of the United States, without discrimination … a rapid, efficient, Nation-wide, and world-wide wire and radio communication service with adequate facilities at reasonable charges, for the purpose of national defense, [and] for the purpose of promoting safety of life and property through the use of wire and radio communications.”
According to the Courier-Gazette, Bay Communications noted there had been no written order from the Rockland Planning Board and that its denial is not based on any written evidence. The Planning Board ruled that the application did not adhere to a commercial overlay zone approved by the City Council in 2015. Still, Bay Communications argued that this overlay zone did not apply.
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