KILAUEA — A small but vocal group, donning umbrellas, rain jackets and signs, rallied Sunday against AT&T’s proposed 80-foot cell phone tower in Kilauea. “We’re fighting it because it will wreck our neighborhood,” said Kilauea resident Lori Patch, adding that
KILAUEA — A small but vocal group, donning umbrellas, rain jackets and signs, rallied Sunday against AT&T’s proposed 80-foot cell phone tower in Kilauea.
“We’re fighting it because it will wreck our neighborhood,” said Kilauea resident Lori Patch, adding that the only beneficiaries of the plan are AT&T and Lighthouse Christian Fellowship church, which would be paid to house the tower on its property. “They’re going to make money and my property values are going to go down.”
Patch is one of the coordinators of the recently-formed neighborhood effort, unofficially dubbed “Kilauea Operation Don’t Cell Out.”
In addition to the tower’s size, opponents say they are concerned about potential health risks, including cancer. “I’m coming straight from the heart,” Patch said. “Nobody in Kilauea wants it.”
Patch said she has received nearly 500 letters and signatures against the proposal, which the Kilauea Neighborhood Association unanimously voted against earlier this month.
J.P. Allen, one of Sunday’s demonstrators in front of Lighthouse church, said there are mixed arguments about whether cell phone towers are safe. Within five or 10 years, he said he expects there will be “well-documented science that proximity to cell phone towers increases the probability of health hazards.”
In addition to the potential health risks to both local residents and students at nearby Kaua‘i Christian Academy, Allen is concerned about what will happen to property values once the structure is erected.
“If a certain percent of the population perceives it as a health hazard — whether it is or not — it can affect property value,” he said. “And it seems like there’s a growing concern.”
No matter how he looks at it, Allen said constructing the tower in the center of Kilauea “doesn’t seem necessary,” and questioned why it couldn’t be built on a nearby hill or father away from homes.
“We know there are other locations for this tower,” Patch added.
Kilauea resident Felicia Cowden lives just down the street from the proposed site. Like other community members, she worries about the health affects and economic impact.
“I live right there, so of course it does very much matter to me,” she said Sunday. “I will sell my house and move because I really don’t want one more health contaminant in my proximity.”
As they did during last month’s Kaua‘i Planning Commission meeting, Cowden and Patch pointed out Sunday that the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits local governments from using health hazard arguments to regulate cell phone towers.
“We can’t use health as an issue,” Patch said. “(But) nobody wants to live by a cell tower. So, if I wanted to move, nobody would want to buy my house.”
Cowden said she would like to see a Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance predetermine safe and appropriate places for this type of infrastructure to be built, which would help avoid community conflicts like this.
There’s no county ordinance that addresses cell phone towers, she said.
“It’s simply a business transaction between the cell phone company and the vulnerable landowner,” she said.
Cowden said it is important that landowners — such as the Lighthouse Christian Fellowship — understand what a cell phone tower like this means for the surrounding community.
Shortly after Sunday’s demonstration began around 9 a.m., two women from the Lighthouse Christian Fellowship pulled up on an ATV to watch the action. Both declined to comment and phone calls to the Lighthouse church Sunday afternoon were not successful.
The Planning Commission is scheduled to discuss the AT&T proposal during its May 14 meeting, which begins at 9 a.m.
• Chris D’Angelo, lifestyle writer, can be reached at 245-0441 or lifestyle@thegardenisland.com.
