Verizon Wireless has sued the city after the Appleton Common Council rejected the company’s bid for a cell tower permit in July, according to USA Today.
Verizon and two other plaintiffs, Central States Tower and Professional Associates, found the rejection “both groundless and in direct conflict with Wisconsin law,” according to their filing in the civil complaint.
Aldermen voted 5-8 to reject a permit for the north Appleton tower at its July 6 meeting. It was the second vote to reject the permit, initially submitted in June.
“The city has been served with a lawsuit and we are preparing the answer,” wrote attorney for the city, Jim Walsh in an email to USA Today. The city has 45 days to respond.
State laws restrict how and when local municipalities can deny cell towers with height or aesthetics being a null and void issue and would be en force only if “substantial written evidence” exists that it would affect public health or safety. Walsh advised the town council not to reject the permit.
“I can’t in good conscience recommend you vote no because I have not heard anything I can go to court with besides, ‘We don’t like the law,’ and that’s not going to fly,” Walsh said to USA Today.
“The Common Council’s concern that Wisconsin state law which regulates the placement of wireless communications facilities is ‘unjust’ and ‘not a state issue’ is in direct conflict” with state law, the plaintiffs said in their filing.
The tower was slated to go on Kesting Court and would have been surrounded by residential homes on all sides.
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