BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Bruce Siereveld discovered last week he's getting a new neighbor - a 180-foot telephone tower 6 feet from his Pleasant Ridge home.

A few days ago, a worker knocked on his Woodmont Avenue door asking if he could trim some bushes in his yard. A crew was about to pour concrete and needed a little more room. Out of curiosity, Mr. Siereveld asked what was planned. The answer: A wireless tower that would soar high above Montgomery Road.

"I was shocked," Mr. Siereveld said Sunday. "What happened to common courtesy, neighborhood concerns about property values, safety and health issues?"

Residents calculate the tower would be about 15 stories higher than the tallest building in Pleasant Ridge.

Kathleen Riehle, director of external affairs for AT&T's Wireless Division, said the company has leased land from the National Jewish Women Council in the business district to build the tower. It's needed to serve the area, she said.

The Federal Telephone Act of 1996 requires that wireless carriers must provide their services to all communities, Ms. Riehle said. Notification of neighbors is not needed if the tower is built in a properly zoned area.

In this neighborhood of about 9,800 people - where roughly 53 percent own their homes - property values, neighborhood stability, health, environment and safety should take priority, resident Mark Callick said.

"Neighborhood stability is a source of pride out here," he said. "AT&T came in quietly and started building the tower without telling anybody. They don't even care what this does to a neighborhood." There's talk among some neighbors of taking the issue to Cincinnati City Hall.

Ms. Riehle said federal law says no neighborhood can keep the towers out. "It simply stipulates that we can't build towers on residential property."

AT&T has built about 20 wireless towers in the city, all on commercial and industrial property, she added.

"Most of them are on rooftops of commercial buildings and smokestacks. This is the first one this close to a heavy residential area," Ms. Riehle said.

Councilman Todd Portune, chairman of the council's Public Works Committee, said council members will discuss the tower this week.

"I am studying a zoning law in Montgomery County which may prevent the federal government from superseding local zoning laws," Mr. Portune said.

Margo Cooper, president of the Jewish Women Council, would not comment Sunday.