On Thursday, March 15, the Town of North Hempstead council held a special meeting to vote on a moratorium on the construction of cell towers. The vote in favor of the moratorium was 5-0. The moratorium itself was debated and passed in anticipation of a change in the zoning code. The law being considered will allow cell towers in areas further away from residential areas.

The moratorium legislation includes the proposed 120-ft. cell tower Sprint had wanted to build on the east side of Shelter Rock Road, south of IU Willets Road in Roslyn.

"We have been inundated with cell tower applications," said Councilwoman Doreen Banks, who also opposed the Sprint tower. "Many are located in densely populated areas and, as far as I am concerned, there has not been enough research into the health effects of these radio waves. While the town and any other government cannot reject applications of cell towers on the basis of health concerns, because of a federal law, we certainly should not experiment with the health of our residents. This law will allow the town to direct towers to more suitable locations, i.e., as far away as possible from homes."

Councilwoman Banks said the town will consider legislation that would try to set up zones for cell towers. The Town of North Hempstead would deem areas as either least desirable or most desirable as a cell tower location. The least desirable locations would include densely populated residential areas. Most desirable areas would include those that already house a cell tower or industrial areas isolated from residential ones. If an area already has a cell tower, then the town would argue that no new ones are needed. The point of the legislation, Councilwoman Banks said, is to prevent a cell tower "on every street corner" in the Town of North Hempstead. The TONH council, she added, hopes to take up the legislation at its Tuesday, April 24 meeting.

In addition, the council has hired an engineer to map out the town for a radio frequency ratio. The map would identify where all existing cell towers in the town are now located. This is being done for the benefit for both council members and any companies that may want cell towers constructed in the town.

When Sprint made their proposal in January, it was greeted with opposition by local residents. Over 100 Roslyn-area residents packed a Jan. 31 hearing of the Town of North Hempstead Zoning Board to express their objections. At the meeting, David Mammina, zoning board chairman, called for an adjournment on the issue until a more detailed public hearing could take place in the spring. Instead, it appears that hearings on overall cell phone legislation will occur. Alfred Lammeto, an attorney for Sprint, said the company agreed to the adjournment decision. In addition, Sprint personnel were willing to meet with local community leaders to both hear their concerns and suggest alternate sites for the tower.

In recent years, residents in the Village of East Hills have opposed Sprint when that company planned to install three antennas to an existing transmission tower near Rallye Motors on Northern Boulevard. Also, residents in both East Hills and the Village of Roslyn opposed the construction of a proposed radar tower that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) hoped to build. In both instances, residents cited health concerns as a major element of their opposition. Councilwoman Banks has acknowledged that federal law prevents any jurisdiction from turning down a cell tower for health risk reasons alone.

For her part, Councilwoman Banks developed an interest in the issue of electromagnetic fields back in 1990, when the New York Power Authority constructed a 345 kv line through the Village of East Williston and through many other communities in the town. Since then, she has done research on electromagnetic fields and, more recently, on radio waves from cell phones and cell towers.