New 5G cell towers aimed at improving cell phone coverage locally and statewide are being installed in Kendall, but neighbors are not happy because they’re being placed right in front of their homes, sometimes without warning.
A huge concrete slab was recently installed just outside the Kendale Lakes home of Lisette Monson, who has lived there for 10 years.
“I went outside and looked and there was a 32-foot utility pole two inches away from my yard,” she said. “They had to cut my bushes and hedges, and my sprinklers are right on the edge of it.”
She soon learned that the concrete slab was a 5G tower, bearing a health warning that it “may cause cancer, birth defects or other reproductive harm.”
“I’m a mom who homeschools my kids,” Monson said, “and my yard is directly below that looming tree area, and we all sleep on that side of the house.”
And it’s not the only 5G tower to have popped up recently. Bernard Hershewski has lived in his Glen Cove home for 30 years.
“They put it right behind my house and with no warning, no advance warning, no notice, nothing, they came and started shoving it down my throat,” Herszewski said.
The two homeowners attended a meeting Tuesday night hosted by the Kendall Coalition of Homeowners Associations with other concerned neighbors who are frustrated and unsure when and where the next 5G towers will be erected.
The county told them it couldn’t do anything about it due to a state law passed in 2019. The communications bill says counties can’t regulate or prohibit the installation of utility poles.
“I’m hoping that there will be a special session at the state level and the bill will be amended to take residential neighborhoods into consideration,” Monson said.
Crown Castle, the company that installed the poles, sent NBC6 a statement saying the towers “provide more reliable coverage, and the scientific and medical communities have all come to the same general conclusion that there are no known health hazards from exposure to RF radiation.”
“We need help. Someone in government who is supposed to look after us, the people, needs to start looking after us. There’s so much we don’t know,” one homeowner said.
Neighboring residents are also concerned about the deterioration of the area’s aesthetics and property values.
State lawmakers in the area are also concerned and said they will begin looking at ways the state can better regulate when and where utility poles can go up.
