AT&T Tower Settlement With Heath Unusual for Its Specificity of Detail

Tuesday’s videoconference on AT&T’s proposed settlement with the town of Heath, Massachusetts, over the installation of a cell tower (see 2212060027) is unusual for the specificity of detail disclosed in the settlement agreement. AT&T’s October 2021 complaint arose out of Heath’s denial of AT&T’s application for a special permit and zoning relief for construction of its wireless facility. The parties reached a settlement nearly a year ago, but the court rejected it, saying AT&T and Heath failed to provide the evidentiary basis on which to evaluate the merits of the resolution. The newest agreement, whose terms were disclosed in a Nov. 30 joint motion for judgment (docket 3:21-cv-30106), calls for the height of the proposed tower to be reduced by 60 feet to 120 feet, then immediately raised by 20 feet in compliance with the Spectrum Act and “associated” FCC regulations. Ten resident property owners, admitted to the case as intervenors, approved the “one-time height extension,” said the document. Under the proposed settlement, AT&T will make tower space available free of charge to Heath’s public safety agencies, situating that space to avoid interfering with AT&T’s space on the tower and “colocation space for other FCC-licensed carriers,” it said. AT&T agreed to reimburse the town for “its actual and reasonable” consultant fees, to a maximum of $2,500, said the proposed agreement. AT&T also agreed to install “sound attenuating material” at the tower site, and to paint the tower, antennas and other attached equipment brown, it said.