Verizon Wireless will hear them now.
Residents are speaking up against the 60-foot cell tower that Big Red plans to put up on a commercial strip in Laurelton.
“It’s an invasion, and it’s just going to be more clutter,” said Tyrell Garcia, 30, who lives nearby. “Most of us don’t even have Verizon phones. If it doesn’t benefit all of us, it shouldn’t be there.”
The free-standing tower, proposed at 229-19 Merrick Blvd., would double the network capacity in the congested area, Verizon spokesman David Samberg said.
But concerned homeowners and community leaders say the structure would be sandwiched between homes and would be “unsightly” and “obtrusive,” and could also pose health risks.
“We have nothing in the community of Laurelton that is that tall,” said Bess DeBetham, who sits on Community Board 13. “It would be obtrusive. The aesthetics, the health hazards — we don’t want or need that.”
Cell towers have long drawn fear of radiation among city dwellers, but there is no clear proof the sites are harmful.
Its emitted radiofrequency waves “cannot cause cancer by directly damaging DNA,” the American Cancer Society says on its website. “At this time, there is very little evidence to support this idea (that cell towers cause cancer for those who have direct exposure to them).”
Samberg said that the commercially-zoned proposed location was the least residential option.
“This is just radio frequency. That’s all it is,” he said. “It’s the same thing.”
The tower would make Verizon’s newest enhanced version of its LTE network available in the community, the spokesman said.
“There’s so much growth in that area,” he said. “It’s like taking a two-lane highway and opening it into four lanes so more people could get on the network.”
Still, outraged residents plan to dial up their opposition at a June 5 public hearing — weeks before the community board expects to give its advisory recommendation on the tower to the Board of Standards and Appeals.
It is not unthinkable for community pressure to put a stop to one of these towers.
In 2005, multiple rallies and boycott threats from Astoria residents forced Nextel Communications to remove four rooftop towers that were mounted on a building next to an elementary school.
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