At the corner of one of the streets near our neighborhood, there’s a notice about an upcoming hearing regarding a cell tower being put up on private land. Most of the people in the area are against it as it would be 155 feet tall and quite an eye sore (as if you walk around looking up all the time…. you wouldn’t notice it most of the time) and they’re mostly against it… I personally don’t know how I feel.

On the one hand, there would be a 155 foot tower just down the road from my house. I probably couldn’t see it from my back deck (thanks to the pine trees) and I wouldn’t see it most of the time I was driving on Mack Dobbs. That, combined with the fact that even though its a tower for T-mobile, it would help my cell reception make me want to say “who gives a flip” and let them build a tower. I mean after all, if the property owner wants a cell tower in their backyard, who am I to stop them?

But this whole mess got me to thinking about just how much rights do we have over what our neighbors do with their own property? HOA’s (as much as I hate them) do help to keep things looking somewhat decent (have you compared two neighborhoods side by side, one with an HOA and one with out? The one with out is much worse…) but really, where does the right to tell our neighbors what they can and cannot do with their property end? For example, our HOA does not allow any outside antenna’s or towers (which makes it hard for Amateur Radio…), but you can do almost anything in your backyard as long as it cannot be seen from the street. Does my neighbor have the right to tell me I can’t build a tower or put up a tree house on my own property?

I’d like to think not, but here, we are, trying to stop someone from benefiting from a cell phone tower (most property owners are subsidized by the tower operator) on their own property, simply because we do not like the way it will look. Imagine if you were asked to tear down your house for the same reason…

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