Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property?

   / Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property? #11  
For that amount of money - it might be very wise to hire a lawyer knowledgable in this particular area.
 
   / Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property? #12  
We have a cell tower on our 46 acre property. Unfortunately the previous property owner received all the financial benefits up front and we get no income for the 99 year lease on the 100 by 100 foot chunk of land. They do have a right-of-way to it. It is on the same right-of-way shared by the PUD to bring power to our house. They are in charge of maintaining the road, however I do it because my standards are much higher than theirs. I did talk to the manager, and got them to agree (with no fuss) of buying a couple thousand dollars worth of gravel that I could use to improve the road. Once a month or so a technician shows up for an hour or two to do whatever it is they do in a cell tower. A couple years ago T-Mobile sent in a crew with a giant crane to spend a week changing out their transmitters that supported their 5G conversion. They were nice guys and I spent quite a bit of time just chatting with them. Once a year a guy comes around with a drone and does a detailed inspection of the unit, spray weeds (there aren't many because I have already done it for them), and just clean up.
I have great cell phone reception.
When bought the property, we were a little concerned about the presence of the tower, but after living here for a while, we have found it is really not much of a bother at all.
 
   / Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property? #13  
We have an old out of commission Cell tower not too far from me.
Looks like they took away what they wanted and left the rest, like the lower mast and some boxes at the base.
Looks weird to see a tower missing the whole top and with no antennas.
I guess their contract ran out and did not have a remove all clause?
 
   / Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property? #14  
Sell them an acre for the $750,000 up front with provisions that the current property owner gets first dibs if the tower gets abandoned.
 
   / Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property? #15  
The school district I retired from let Verizon install a cell tower at their district headquarters (no impact on students as that’s a big no no with parents). The issue was that they tied into the districts electrical system and the monthly usage exceeded the monthly lease payment. It should have had a sub-meter.

The installation was handled by M&O, not Facilities which was my department.
 
   / Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property? #16  
Well, BIL has one on his farm property about a mile at most from the house. . The place chosen already had 3 ph power going down the road to an old oil well site there. There 's a clause for escalating $ by a certain percent every few years. Also is a generator and it has a cyclone fence around the towers pad. There are warning signs about radiation on that fence. Not much traffic at all - maybe the guy that does the generator maintaince every month or so. They did not allow negotiation in regards to our phones being free nor on us limiting addition of other antennas on it. Always getting letters from companies wanting to buy the tower lease for large $$$$$ sums... That's all I can say about it .
 
   / Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property?
  • Thread Starter
#17  
All good points...

The area is a valley and driving through everyone loses signal and calls drop no matter the carrier... it's a known issue and now more so with the new two million dollar homes going in within a stones throw of the farm but on the city side where brother is rural county.

The proximity issue may be mute because first chosen site is just as far from the homestead as the location on brothers property...

The compensation is a major factor and having reliable service being the second.

Property Tax on the farm is a little over 30k for 65 acres... so the thinking is the rent would offset a lot of the tax in their golden years...

Access would not be through the homestead but farm service road...

Yes to undergrounding new service to to highest elevation and yes to generator and refueling as required and yes to improving the access road used mostly for the Kubota and UTV...

Brother had a preferred location but the surveyor said elevation with clear horizon is what makes a good site and brothers ideal location is 340 degree as compared to hilltop 360 unobstructed...

His hilltop is what blocks signal in the valley as about 20 years ago a big tower went in clearly visible off in the distance from the hilltop but the valley is in the shadow of I understand correctly.

I'm sure the expensive new homes in line of sight is a driving factor...

In town it's the churches doing the most business on the private side...

Most already have towers/steeples and some separation from neighbors and congregations seem to be always looking for income...
 
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   / Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property? #18  
As others have mentioned, he should consult an attorney and definitely address the decommissioning issues. If the company pulls out, leaves, stops using it, etc, who’s responsible for the tower?

I used to know the guy that owned this tower company.


Did a bit of business with him at my old job to rent tower space to get internet across the state line wirelessly to avoid paying tariffs had we used land lines.

He owned a dozen or so towers, and rented to cell phone companies, businesses, governments, etc.

So is the entity approaching your brother a cell phone company that will only have their equipment on site, or someone that just rents tower space to whomever needs it?
 
   / Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property? #20  
My neighbor took the deal about 10 yrs ago. Lucky for him they took a spot on the edge of the property where the entrance road came to. They plant the property in wheat, there are no buildings on it. But 2 neighboring homes are real close to it...
At first it was smallish and poorly disguised as a pine tree. Not that we have any pine trees around here :rolleyes:. But then they started bringing in large ground boxes 8ft tall and rebuilt a tower twice as big with no attempt to hide it. It clearly looks like a utility substation from a 1/2 mile away now and 2neighbors with homes close by worry about micro waves etc.
$2500 for 25 years sounds good but IDK. Lawyer up sounds like good advice. Start there.
 
 
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