AT&T, Town of Heath Need More Time to Hammer Out Tower Settlement

AT&T reached a tentative agreement to settle its yearlong wireless infrastructure fight with the town of Heath, Massachusetts, and 10 of its residents who entered the case as intervenors, but the parties need a deadline extension to Nov. 28 to “draft, finalize, and execute a written agreement for judgment” to be filed with the court, said AT&T in an unopposed motion Saturday (docket 3:21-cv-30106) in U.S. District Court for Massachusetts in Springfield. AT&T sued in October 2021 to contest Heath’s allegedly unlawful denial of an application to construct and install a 180-foot-tall monopole cell tower with antennas and related ground equipment crucial to remedying a significant gap in wireless service coverage. AT&T asserted the denial was not based on substantial evidence andin violation of Section 332 of the Communications Act. The 10 intervenors, who entered the case Jan. 18, said the town planning board acted properly when it denied AT&T’s application, mostly on aesthetic grounds. The residents hastily hired lawyers and drafted court papers, they said, “to protect their interests” when they learned that AT&T and Heath were seeking judicial approval of a settlement that would permit the cell tower project to go forward.