UPDATE A handful of residents in Pittsfield, MA who are unhappy with a Verizon cell tower in their neighborhood are mounting another legal challenge, reports the Berkshire Eagle. Lower courts have already acknowledged that at the project’s onset, two of the three notification criteria were met. The city posted an announcement in the local paper and put the notice on display at City Hall. The earlier ruling agreed that abutting neighbors should have received mailed notices, but decided that this technicality was not sufficient reason to dismantle the 115-foot cell tower.
Shacktown, MA neighbors have tried attacking the cell tower on aesthetic grounds, and with claims that it is responsible for medical maladies. Neither of these approaches has gained sufficient legal traction. However, the latest challenge has focused on the missing mailers and hopes to convince the court that the lower court was incorrect in siding with Verizon and the zoning board when it determined that sufficient notice had been given.
John Siskopoulos, the attorney now representing the cell tower opponents, expressed righteous indignation that the initial court decision failed to side with the Pittsfield challengers. “I’m not trying to make jokes,” he said. “But you could have a Hooters next to a kindergarten school overnight. People have a right to have community standards apply.”
First proposed in 2018, the cell tower was erected in 2020. Representing both Verizon and the city of Pittsfield, attorney Mark Esposito has asked the superior court to deny the appeal. He asserts that the appeal was made outside the allotted window for challenging the appellate court ruling. It is his contention that previous courts accurately read established law on notices and that no further review is needed.
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