Saturday, July 17, 1999
Zoning goes to Supreme Court
Anderson trustees want say on towers
BY CHRISTINE WOLFF
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ANDERSON TOWNSHIP — Trustees have decided to continue to the Ohio Supreme Court in their fight to keep zoning control over the location of telecommunications towers.
Trustees agreed to continue because no township money will be spent in the appeal, said Russ Jackson, trustee president. Township attorneys were instructed Thursday to file a request asking that the case be heard by the state's highest court.
The request to the Supreme Court, which will cost $1,800 in legal fees, will be paid for with money contributed by other communities interested in the lawsuit's outcome.
The communities include Union Township in Butler County, Union Township in Clermont County, and two townships in northeastern Ohio counties.
The two towers that caused the lawsuit were erected last year in Anderson Township along Interstate 275 at Five Mile Road and U.S. 52.
The issue, Mr. Jackson said, is not aesthetics, though the towers are close to residential areas. It's local control.
“We want the towers removed until (the companies) go through the (zoning) process,” he said. “The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) entered into contracts with private cell-phone companies to install towers along ODOT right-of-way. The state failed to consider whether local township zoning applied.”
The township is asking the Supreme Court to look at a June decision by the Ohio 10th District Court of Appeals. It upheld a ruling from Franklin County Common Pleas Court that gave the companies — GTE Wireless and AirTouch — the right to build the towers.
Judge Patrick McGrath of Franklin County had ruled that the companies were exempt from township zoning regulation. The companies were classified as public utilities when they entered agreements with ODOT.
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Zoning goes to Supreme Court
