A Westfield, IN resident was sued by Crown Castle for speaking out at a zoning hearing. According to the Indianapolis Star, Tracy Pielemeier, who was served the lawsuit by the local sheriff’s department, was among several residents who had spoken against the company’s petition to the local Board of Zoning Appeals to build a cell phone tower near 166th Street and Towne Road. The board denied the petition after hearing public testimony that it would look intrusive. Crown also sued the board and the five residents in Hamilton Circuit Court in an effort to reverse the decision.
“We were all just completely stunned,” Pielemeier told the Indianapolis Star, adding she felt Crown Castle was using intimidation tactics for merely speaking their minds. A lawyer for the remonstrators, Jeff Heinzmann, worried that including protesters in such lawsuits could make citizens hesitant to speak up at government meetings.
“The biggest concern I would have would be that if remonstrators start as a matter of routine getting sued by the petitioner who failed to get something approved, it would have a chilling effect on those who want to stand up and speak out,” he said.
Crown Castle declined comment about why the residents were sued but legal documents show that Crown believed the residents “were not aggrieved and had no standing to argue against the cell phone tower.”
A local judge agreed and ruled the remonstrators “had no standing as aggrieved parties in court” and ordered the board to reconsider its ruling, saying the board needed to make a more clear argument as to why the tower was denied, reported the IndyStar.
A movement to appease both parties by re-locating the site closer to a water tower nearby was denied. The cell phone tower was approved for construction at the original site.
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