CELL PHONE TOWERS - What affect do they have on residential area's?

I often read about communities that go up against the cell phone giants for their placement of their towers. I always feel for the residents and think, isn't there a better location not in a residential area.

Well last week this issue was dropped close to my neighborhood in South Manchester. AT&T is trying to build a 100 foot tower in a residential area of South Mammoth Road. The zoning board gave AT&T 30 days to meet with neighbors. Most towers are not approved for residential area's in a city and for good reason as they can bring down property values and cause an eye sore for those who have enjoyed peaceful neighborhood views for all their lives.

In my opinion there as Industrial and commercial areas that are within a mile in all directions that would not affect the residential area and there are already towers in some of those areas. Why cant they place them on top of what is already there??? It seems so simple but big industry just does not seem to care about the average person.

One of the thoughts was to place this tower just down the road on land owned by the city and houses an elementary and middle school. With schools hard up for dollars this could be a great plus to raise funds for these schools. The poiticians shot this down as they dont want "radiation" affecting the kids. Unless they are sitting on the tower, i dont see any study that radiation will affect any one from a tower.

I was recently contacted by the land owner who saw my blog and wanted to fill me in on the other side of the story. He did have some interesting facts, he did educate me on a couple of pointers of where other towers are located and was cordial in his delivery. The tower is not in directly in my backyard so i dont have a strong of a stance as some of the neighbors immediately around this property.

One of the key questions was how much would a tower lower values. If i was a neighbor, any amount is too low but i dont have an exact answer, ill leave that for the professionals.

What can you add about cell phone towers, property values and such... Please let me know 

 

Updated June 2, 2011