Southwest Lansing (MI) and my neighborhood

Residents of Lansing’s (MI) southwest side neighborhood, Averill Woods, are still trying to welcome T-Mobile to its very residential neighborhood where the cell service provider wants to build a 120-foot cell tower.

Averill Woods neighbors have been rebuffed in its efforts to extend the hand of friendship to T-Mobile which is suing the city of Lansing in U.S. District Court to get its way cleared to build the tower. Last year, the Lansing City Council turned down T-Mobile’s request for a special use permit to build the tower at the foot of Deerfield Avenue and Skye Road.

Our neighborhood association leader, Melissa Quon Huber, has raised several relevant questions about how the proposed cell tower can be made more palatable to our area. She had pointed to a Wireless Master Plan from Mission Viejo, CA.  It included several photographs of towers.

Check the link below to a similar tower.  You are invited to leave your comments and questions. Her comments:

• Check the photo of this cell tower where attempts were made to make it more stealth to try and hide it.
• HOWEVER, note that NONE OF THE STEALTH TOWER EXAMPLES IN THIS REPORT WERE AS TALL AS THE ONE PROPOSED BY T-MOBILE!!!!
• My guess is that stealth towers are rarely used at this height because this size of tower has been generally restricted to the industrially zoned areas where no one cares.
• The stealth examples are in the 60-80 ft height that we have been asking for!!
• I would really like to see a frequency engineer’s assessment to see if T-Mobile truly needs the 120 ft height to meet its customers’ needs.
• STEALTH POLE: So, would a GIANT tree be better or worse than a GIANT pole towering 40-50 feet above the tree line? Keep in mind there would probably also be a flashing light on this thing to signal airplanes.
• STEALTH COVERINGS: I like the boulder for concealing the equipment and I like the privacy fence or brick wall for the barrier. What are your thoughts?
• RELOCATION: This combination of tree, boulder, and fence could make the whole thing more appropriate and attractive for placing on the front portion of Grandhaven’s property where it can be less of a safety hazard and nuisance.
• I would presume this more visible location would make it better monitored for trash problems and be a deterrent for negative activities if it is out in the open.
• T-MOBILE COMMUNITIES: We know that T-Mobile responded to citizen concerns in the Kansas City case and hopefully they will be to ours also.
• T-MOBILE WANTS US TO GIVE UP OUR LANDLINES: I saw today that T-Mobile rolled out its campaign for “T-Mobile at home” as the person in the ad chopped down all the phone lines.
• Check out T-mobile’s assessment of their street level coverage to promote using cell towers at home at http://www.t-mobile.com/coverage/pcc.aspx.