Rockrimmon residents concerned with proposed cell towers in neighborhood

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- Residents are fighting proposed cell towers in their Rockrimmon neighborhood, despite federal laws placing the power in the hands of telecommunication companies.

Tom Mohan walked up a small trail right outside his back door, past a fort he made for his two daughters and pointed to a flat section covered in fallen trees. It was the proposed site for new Verizon cell towers — about 40 feet from his property line and 200 feet from his house.

Earlier in April, Mohan received a letter from CSAI, a engineering and design firm that represents telecommunication companies. The letter stated Verizon has “coverage and capacity needs in the area to provide safe, secure, fast and reliable service.”

In its letter of intent, CSAI said, “The installation of this new equipment will provide critical 4G-LTE voice and data services along with 5G to a location with many residents, remote employees, small businesses, and the traveling.”

The proposed design includes three 22-foot tall cell towers disguised as trees.

“I was shocked,” Mohan said. “I didn't know this can happen in a residential neighborhood.”

Technically it can’t. Verizon has to apply for a special use permit, as the El Paso County parcel for the proposed project is zoned A-5 for single-family residential and agriculture. The El Paso County Planning and Community Development Director Meggan Herington said she could approve the project but when there is significant neighborhood opposition, she refers it to the Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners.

Mohan said only the six property owners connected to the proposed site were notified of the potential cell towers. In response, Mohan told 165 households in his neighborhood about the project. He said a majority of them opposed the idea.

“This is a developmentally friendly city and county, so we're going to give it a go and try our best and hope that we can stop this,” he said.

Mohan is worried that if the towers go up, his home’s value will decline. He also said the towers will disrupt wildlife and the aesthetics of the neighborhood.

“We have a beautiful neighborhood in the foothills and when we look out from our house, this view out behind me, I will see the top of these towers from every single window of my house,” he said.

The El Paso County code requires telecommunication towers to be “compatible with the surrounding area.”

CSAI said this proposed design is the best they have ever submitted. In its letter, CSAI said, “We completely understand the sensitivity of the residential neighborhood and are merely looking for a design option that allows us to coexist in this community. As a result, we never considered anything that wasn’t going to be camouflaged/stealth in design in consideration of the nearby residents. Because of the undeveloped, natural surrounding area with many trees, we felt that a faux tree was the most fitting of the potential stealth design options.”

Mohan’s main concern is the unknown health effects of cell tower frequencies. While there have been studies proving and disproving the short-term negative health effects of cell towers, there are no conclusive long-term studies.

“I will never let my kids live here knowing that we're going to be 207 feet from three towers that are emitting frequencies of radiation that we have no long-term studies to show that it's 100% safe,” he said.

However, this concern can’t be taken into account when local and state governments vote on cell towers.

The Telecommunication Act of 1996 protects telecommunication companies, like Verizon. It has strict guidelines for what can or can’t be considered when governments vote on cell towers.

For example, section 704 of the federal law states, “No State or local government or instrumentality thereof may regulate the placement, construction, and modification of personal wireless service facilities on the basis of the environmental effects of radio frequency emissions to the extent that such facilities comply with the Commission’s regulations concerning such emissions.”

“I learned about the Telecommunications Act in 1996 and how it handcuffs the citizens and the cities,” he said.

When local governments have denied cell towers, the company usually turns right around and files a federal lawsuit for violating the Telecommunication Act of 1996.

The representative for the project, Ryan Sagar, didn’t respond to my requests for comment.

Herington, the El Paso County Planning and Community Development Director, said Verizon hasn’t submitted a formal application for the project. Since 2020, El Paso County has received five cell tower applications and all five have been approved.

Mohan said if the cell towers are approved, he will sell his house.

“I could have never predicted that towers would be going up and we would be forced out of our forever homes,” Mohan said.