Crown Castle Holds “Town Hall” in Canonsburg On Contested Tower

SHARE THIS ARTICLE

Crown Castle scheduled a town hall meeting in its own HQ’s backyard, Canonsburg, PA, on October 15, to answer questions about the company’s plans to install a 33-foot antenna in North Strabane Township, according to the Observer-Reporter. Many residents, including 900 who signed a petition, oppose the location on a utility right-of-way in a residential neighborhood near two schools.

Concerns include potential health risks, lowered property values, and the necessity for the antenna based on current wireless coverage. “We realize that cell phone towers/antennas are needed, and we are not fighting the progression of technology,” petition leader Christopher DeAndrea wrote in an email to the Observer-Reporter. 

“We are simply asking that Crown Castle put the [antenna] in a different location to protect the health of our family, friends, neighbors, and our children.” 

Crown pulled an application last month that had previously been submitted because of a recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling (PPL Electric Utilities Corp. v. City of Lancaster, 2019 Pa. LEXIS 4611 (Pa. 2019). The ruling states that the Pennsylvania Utilities Commission has jurisdiction over cell towers and equipment, not municipalities, per the Observer-Reporter. The Court noted the danger in “inviting hundreds of municipalities to create their own patchwork of ‘supplementary’ regulations to enforce at whim.”

October 11, 2019

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.