Asking for Informed Government

This picture is a licensed surveyor's to-scale rendition of the proposed 150 foot cell tower at the Island Chapel using the dimensions appearing in Ridan's application. The upper 60 feet of the tower is 42 inches in diameter and 72 inches at the base.

Please note the recently purchased Grand Mariner luxury condominiums in the background along with the church steeple. The Grand Mariner building lies within 260 feet of the proposed cell tower that will be located directly in their line-of-sight.

 Did you know that on September 1st the planning and zoning board spent over an hour listening to a lawyer named Gary Resnic, from Gray Robinson in Boca Raton, about multiple cell towers on Longboat Key? Neither did I, until after the planning and zoning board meeting, even though Steve Shields, who is in charge of the current cell tower application, was asked about the meeting agenda two days prior to the meeting, and said the only agenda item was the transportation elements of the comprehensive plan. Mr. Resnic's hour plus presentation did not appear in the published agenda, so no one from the public was informed about a major discussion by the planning and zoning board about cell towers. What has happened to fair and open government in our community that people are sneaked into advertised public meetings? The planning and zoning board then spent less than 20 minutes on the advertised transportation agenda item. I also wish to point out that even if a resident had accidentally attended the meeting, their participation would have most likely been limited to all of 3 minutes. A few years ago when an industry expert from Next-G traveled hundreds of miles to address the commission about DAS, the commission granted him all of 3 minutes, while listening to the cell tower salesperson for hours on end, meeting after meeting. On two occasions the town manager conducted private meetings with the cell tower salesperson, outside the commission chamber, in the middle of an advertised public commission meeting. If the planning and zoning board now contends, after talking to a cell tower lawyer for an hour, that it has vetted the island's communications needs, and commences to once again recommend multiple cell towers up and down our island, then I feel they have failed their fiduciary obligation to serve the public to the best of their abilities. I contend that talking for an hour with a cell tower lawyer, who admitted that he had no technical knowledge about cell towers, the need for cell towers, or the public's desire to have or not have tall cell towers within their community, then the planning and zoning board has failed their duty.

The last time the planning and zoning board recommended multiple cell towers on Longboat Key, the community responded with a petition, with over 630 signatures from north end registered voters, that they did not want any structures over 35 feet. They packed the commission chamber on several occasions and the commission voted unanimously to retain our current cell tower codes. That commission listened and are to be congratulated for being responsive to their constituents. The current chairperson of the planning and zoning board recently stated that we now have a different commission with reference to long standing cell tower policies supported by decades of previous town commissions.

Now we have a commission, along with their appointed planning and zoning board, that do not appear to be even slightly concerned with what the residents want. For the past two years the word resident has been seldom mentioned by the commission. On the other hand, we here more and more about how it is the town's obligation to promote business and development on Longboat, and that the codes and comp plan must be gutted to welcome unbridled development. Cell towers will most likely be their first concerted effort, and their actions will have a severe financial impact on surrounding property values, while reaping huge financial gains for cell tower companies. All this without ever asking industry experts to educate the community about what is best for our exclusive town.

The unwillingness of the commission and the planning and zoning board to get input from anyone except cell tower salespeople, and cell tower company lawyers, will most likely prevent more technically advanced forms of communications from ever reaching our island, thus impeding our path to becoming a technically advanced community that will attract tech-savvy baby-boomer home-buyers. This has been confirmed by a large cell tower company executive.

Our neighbors on Anna Maria have retained an industry expert to assist their efforts to rewrite their communications codes. Here the commission will control the process to include input exclusively from cell tower salespeople and their lawyers. This is unfortunate if your are a homeowner. Our community needs island-wide broadband wifi along with less expensive alternatives to the high fees being charged by Comcast and Verizon. When visitors come to our island they bring their IPads and notebook computers. They want wifi far more that cell phones since they already have VOIP phone apps such as Line2 on all their smart devices. These apps are carrier neutral so even people with small carriers receive great cell phone reception indoors and outdoors if wifi is available.

The Key Club might attract more and younger quests if they offered wifi in the hotel rooms instead of just in the lobby area. Longboat Key is badly behind the times in terms of modern communications available in most other up-scale communities. Pervasive wifi is essential to compete in these times. Cell towers are antiquated and soon to be replaced by less expensive technologies. Ask your children what they think? Do you want a cell tower salesperson to decide your communications future?

If the commission and the planning and zoning board make uninformed decisions, advised only by cell tower salespeople and their lawyers, they will undoubtedly make uninformed decisions and we all know what that usually means. Who will buy homes in a community that is controlled by people who have no regard for well established and proved community codes? Who will buy homes in a community divided by strife and lawsuits and a town government that has ceased to listen to its people?