T-Mobile Wants More Time To Build Cell Tower Next to Cresthaven Elementary School

At tomorrow morning’s March 25, 2015, worksession, the Montgomery County Board of Appeals is scheduled to address a request for the Board to reconsider a Resolution that grants extra time for T-Mobile to construct a cell tower that would abut Cresthaven Elementary School, on property owned by the West Hillandale Swim Club.  Neighbors and local parents, some who have been fighting the cell tower since 2007, want Special Exception S-2709 to be allowed to expire on April 22, 2015.

Opponents say the Board relied on misrepresentations when it granted T-Mobile an extension of time. Seeking the extension, on February 4, 2015, T-Mobile told the Board that no infrastructure, no pole, and no footprint modifications would be made during the requested time extension, and that T-Mobile would not need to return to the Board to seek authorization for changes to the cell tower. But following the Board’s release of its Resolution, which granted the extension of time, Susan Present sent a letter to the Board, saying, “…I am concerned that T-Mobile may seek to enlarge the telecom facility … and that T-Mobile would try to utilize the time granted through the Resolution to acquire authorization…”  Offering Ms. Present no reassurance, T-Mobile’s reply to the Board states, “Should T-Mobile and/or the West Hillandale Swim Club seek modification of the approval or conditions of same, we trust the Board can consider such a request and make the appropriate decision based on the merits.”

Also on February 4^th, to demonstrate that T-Mobile was the leaseholder and authorized developer, the swim club president attested to T-Mobile’s ongoing lease and payments of rent. However, opponent Lynn Grodski has told the Board of Appeals, “State tax records show that T-Mobile has never established a separate tax I.D. for the parcel that it told the Board of Appeals it has continuously been leasing from the West Hillandale Swim Club…T-Mobile has been advantaged by the County tax-credit that the nonprofit private swim club has annually received as a facility that is used exclusively to provide a recreational outlet to the local community.”