The Town of North Hempstead has been offered a settlement in its appeal against ExteNet Systems over proposed cell nodes that would slightly decrease the number being installed, Councilwoman Mariann Dalimonte said in a newsletter to constituents sent Monday.
She said the proposed agreement, which also calls for the height of some nodes to be increased, will be considered by the Town Board at a virtual meeting on Thursday.
In August 2019, ExteNet, contracted by Verizon Wireless, filed applications to install 16 cell nodes in areas including Port Washington Estates, Manhasset Bay Estates, Bayview Colony and an unincorporated area near Plandome Manor. After months of inaction where a “shot clock” was reset and ran out, ExteNet sued the town and won on the ground that the town had failed to act on the applications within a “reasonable” time frame, with no public hearings on the applications planned from last August to February.
The company was then granted summary judgment in a June 26 court order which calls for the town to “issue all approvals necessary for ExteNet’s installation of the 16 small wireless facilities” and “cooperate in good faith to coordinate with ExteNet during construction and installation.” North Hempstead then filed an appeal and sought a stay of the judgment but no stay was awarded.
Dalimonte said that following the appeal, the court directed the town and ExteNet to participate in mediation and “after discussions among the parties and their expert engineers, an agreement has been reached.”
“ExteNet has agreed to reduce the overall number of wireless facilities to be installed under the Judgment from 16 to 13 by increasing the height of the proposed installation on North Plandome Road and moving and increasing the height of the proposed installation on Beachway to Yacht Club Drive,” Dalimonte wrote. “This will eliminate the proposed installations at Carlton Avenue, North Court, and Capi Lane. The final terms of the settlement are still subject to further discussion and memorialization by the parties and are expected to be completed before the Town Board meeting on October 22, 2020. A Resolution approving the settlement will appear on the agenda for the Board’s approval.”
The councilwoman added that if the settlement does not pass, ExteNet will be able to install all 16 cell nodes under the U.S. District Court ruling.
Under FCC rules, municipalities can only cite aesthetics and node locations as valid reasons to reject applications,
with other factors like health reasons not allowed for consideration. The rules have not stopped residents on the North Shore from bringing up their concerns over health as a result of the nodes at public meetings and forums for villages that received applications. Concerned residents who feared the towers’ construction also took to
picketing a Verizon store on Port Washington Boulevard in August.
ExteNet has also sued the villages of Lake Success, Flower Hill, Plandome and Plandome Manor in the past two years after each village, following widespread public backlash, did not approve its requests to build cell nodes. Legal proceedings are ongoing in all four villages.
The town had not previously discussed the application in public session, but Supervisor Judi Bosworth did speak disapprovingly of “the companies who want to install upgraded 5G cell phone transmission equipment in residential areas”
in her State of the Town address in January.
