After their application to install three antennas to an existing transmission tower near Rallye Motors in Roslyn was rejected by the Village of Roslyn Board of Trustees, representatives for Sprint Spectrum said they hoped some alternative plan could be worked out between the BOT and the company. Sprint has taken further action, but it entails a lawsuit against the village, one that seeks to overturn the BOT's earlier decision.

The lawsuit was announced by Roslyn Village Attorney John Spellman at the BOT's Aug. 15 meeting. Mr. Spellman said the suit was filed in federal court and will take quite a long while before there is any resolution. Sprint had hoped to install the antennas as a way to provide cellular phone assistance to local residents. Efforts by The Roslyn News to reach Sprint spokesmen for further details of the lawsuit proved unsuccessful.

When the BOT rejected the Sprint proposal, members cited violations in local setback requirement laws. They also claimed that Sprint had failed to demonstrate why an alternative site was not acceptable to them. The project was not turned down due to potential or perceived health risks coming from the antennas. The 1996 Federal Communications Act forbids local municipalities to reject such offers on those same very health risks grounds, even though public opposition, especially from residents in the Appletree Lane section of East Hills, was based on health concerns. Those residents, including Village of East Hills Board of Trustee member Linda Nathanson, worried over increased risks of breast cancer due to transmissions from such a site. They also cited property values decreases, which usually accompany the building of such structures.

The alternative site offered by opponents of the plan was to be located near Acura Motors, also on Northern Boulevard in Roslyn. Attorneys for Sprint rejected that site claiming that the Acura tower would have to be 244 ft. high in order to be effective. Such a tower, they added, would also have a negative visual impact on the area. The tower near Rallye is 90 ft. high.

In other legal news, Mr. Spellman said that he is hopeful that Phillips International will submit a building application for residential construction in the village within ten days to two weeks, at least in time for the next BOT meeting, set for Tuesday, Sept. 19. The Phillips proposal would consist of 120-140 rowhouse/townhouse-style housing to be built in downtown Roslyn, on the site where LCS Inc. once hoped to build their Stop & Shop supermarket. Mr. Spellman said the proposal would probably add up to about 100 buildings on the site. Some rowhouses would consist of two-family units.

Last winter, LCS entered into a contract of sales with Phillips, which in effect, handed over that site to Phillips. From the beginning, Phillips personnel have said that any new proposal would be in accordance with the village's master plan and new zoning codes. After all this time, LCS still has two lawsuits against the village pending in New York State Appellate courts. The lawsuits, which stem from LCS losing earlier suits in lower courts over the supermarket project, would be withdrawn if the proposed residential housing plan is introduced and eventually approved.