Ham Towers and (Other People's) Property Values

摘要

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, it's said, and what we hams perceive as a magnificent addition to our local landscape — a beautiful tower supporting beautiful antennas — is often perceived differently by our neighbors. And one argument frequently made by neighbors opposing a ham's application for permission to build a new tower is that it will constitute an eyesore that will reduce their property values. But will it? A recent article in an American Bar Association magazine examined this question with regard to cell phone towers and concluded that, as it says on the cover, "Cell Phone Towers Do Not Affect Property Values." The article in the May/June 2016 issue of Probate and Property magazine1 focuses on a court case in Delaware in which lengthy procedural delays actually helped AT&T analyze the impact of a temporary cell tower in the same location as its proposed permanent tower over a two-year period. The conclusion, based on empirical data from real estate transactions in the neighborhood before the tower was put up and while it was up, was that prices rose and fell in step with those in the rest of the community and that the presence of the tower had no impact on property values.