Springs Residents Against Elite Towers (“SRAET”) is Circulating this Petition to Prevent the Town of East Hampton, New York from Reversing the Decision It Made in 2015 To Revoke the Building Permit for this Illegal, Unnecessary, and Dangerous Tower.

We hope you will sign and return this petition which can be submitted electronically or by hard copy (see instructions below).

SRAET is an organization of neighbors in the hamlet known as Springs in East Hampton, New York. We have opposed this illegal cell tower since it appeared out of nowhere and without any public discussion in 2015. This tower has stood empty since 2015 because the Zoning Board of East Hampton (“ZBA”) revoked its building permit promptly after it was put up. The ZBA revoked the permit because no application was submitted to the Planning Board as is required by local law. The ZBA directed Elite Towers (the tower developer) and the Springs volunteer Fire Department to submit an application to the Planning Department. But instead, Elite sued the ZBA in state court. In 2020, after five years of litigation, the State Court upheld the ZBA’s ruling. Even though Elite and the Fire Department lost their lawsuit, they did not remove their illegal tower, and the Town failed to enforce its zoning code and require the removal of the illegal tower.

While the ZBA shut this tower down 10 years ago, the political climate has since changed, and the Planning Board at its recent November 19, 2025 meeting agreed (subject to the outcome of a public hearing likely to be held in the next 30 to 60 days) to reverse the positive SEQRA Declaration it made and to issue a permit allowing the illegal tower to be moved to a new site on the Fire Department property that no longer requires a variance from the ZBA. Should the Planning Board succeed in allowing Elite to lease this tower to four wireless carriers, Springs residents will be exposed to the life-threatening health, safety, and environmental risks set forth below.

We seek support from neighbors in Springs and other towns in the Hamptons, as well as from concerned citizens anywhere in the U.S. or overseas. Under applicable law, anyone on the face of the earth has the right to participate in the Planning Board’s public hearings regardless of where they live or their citizenship. Instructions for participating in the forthcoming public hearing in person or remotely by phone are included below.

This tower is being shoehorned into our yards just inches outside the 150-foot safety zone (the so-called “fall zone”) which the Town Board conveniently cut from 300 feet (2x the tower’s height) to 150 feet (1x the tower’s height) in 2022 so that this ill-begotten tower could be squeezed onto the Fire Department’s three-acre property. Shortly after its November meeting, the Planning Board scheduled a public hearing for January 14, 2026, and we began to circulate this petition. While we circulated it to recruit supporters to participate in the public hearing, truth be told, we had scant hope of prevailing. But suddenly, a few weeks ago (on January 12th) just two days before the January 14th hearing, the Planning Board acquiesced to Elite’s request for an indefinite postponement of the hearing. Elite claimed it needed more time to address certain issues, but we believe the real reason for delay was the discovery that Elite’s attorney (Mr. Gregory Alvarez) had misled the Planning Board on the bedrock assumption that underpinned its decision to approve the tower. Notwithstanding that Mr. Alvarez had reassured the Board on three videotaped occasions that Elite’s tower is state-of-the-art and would never fall (but would instead, telescope into itself if stressed by high winds or other seismic or climate change events), the owner of Elite Towers (Ms. Tanya Negron) confessed (also on video) at the December 16, 2025 meeting of the Springs Citizens Advisory Committee (“SCAC”) that Elite’s tower could not telescope because it would be jam-packed inside with antennas, cabling, and other equipment. Ms. Negron also admitted that no cell tower exists that can telescope into itself because the steel cylinders from which it is constructed are bolted together.

Thus, the light we now see at the end of the tunnel is that the Planning Board may well do the right thing which is to stop this tower. This would be the right thing because its rationale for approving the tower was based upon the false assumption that it can telescope upon catastrophic failure, and thus, not endanger public safety. While this delay has energized and buoyed our hopes, we must not assume victory. To the contrary, now is the time to redouble our efforts. And that is why we are reaching out to friends and neighbors and people of good conscience everywhere on the planet for their support.

Besides the incontrovertible fact that this tower is dangerous, these are the other reasons why it poses a lethal threat to the health and safety of Springs’ residents and the pristine environment of our idyllic hamlet:

This Tower Can Poison Our Drinking Water.

The tower will have four wireless carriers bringing four separate diesel-powered emergency generators and four separate diesel storage tanks to the property. If diesel spills, it may poison the groundwater. There are 112 homes within a half-mile of Elite’s Tower. Almost everyone in Springs drinks well water. Thus, nearly all of our drinking water could be contaminated if diesel fuel spills or leaks. The risk from contaminated groundwater is very real. In 2018, 110 homes in Wainscott (an adjacent hamlet) were found to have contaminated well water and were connected to city water on an emergency basis. In 2016, 450 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from an AT&T cell tower in Oregon into the drinking water. Learn more about this incident here: https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/tech/science/environment/2016/02/22/450-gallons-diesel-spill-above-detroit-lake/80759708/.

This Is a Dangerous Tower That Can Fall on You.

When all is said and done, there can be no denying that the Planning Board’s unanimous decision to approve this tower was based on the false assumption that it will telescope (and not topple over) when stressed by high winds or seismic pressures or other climate change events. There can be no denial because the Board arrived at this assumption while being videoed at its Board meetings on April 2, 2025, July 23, 2025, and November 19, 2025 at which times Mr. Gregory Alvarez (Elite’s attorney), under cross-examination by Board members testified that Elite’s tower would telescope under the aforesaid conditions.

The back and forth between Mr. Alvarez and the Planning Board can be viewed at this YouTube link: youtube.com/watch?si=W5KO_4mc8DKiCcYa&v=chBL5gc_Rgg&feature=youtu.be. The key exchanges occurred at the times shown on this YouTube link which were as follows: April 2nd from 7:50pm through 7.55pm; July 23rd from: 7:27pm through 7:28pm; and on November 19th from: 7:08pm through 7:12pm. You can also view these videos on the East Hampton website under the Planning Department web portal.

Notwithstanding Elite’s attorney’s reassurances, on December 16, 2025, Ms. Negron (Elite’s owner) admitted her cell tower cannot telescope, and in fact, that no cell tower can telescope, because the steel cylinders it is built from are bolted together. Ms. Negron’s admission was videotaped at the SCAC December 16, 2025 meeting. That video can be viewed by clicking this YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=quJ8wG7Y2Nk. This video is also posted on our website: www.sraet.org.

It is important to note that two board members of SCAC, David Buda and Krae Van Sickle, as well as Ian Calder-Piedmonte, an East Hampton Town Board member, who all attended the December 16 meeting, all concurred with Ms. Negron’s acknowledgment that no cell tower exists which can telescope.

Because of Ms. Negron’s admission, the Springs cell tower now becomes a test of the Planning Board’s integrity. Based upon Mr. Alvarez’s false information, the Board consented to shoehorning this 150-foot tower onto the Fire Department property by relocating it to the center of the site, barely squeaking it into the truncated 150-foot fall zone (in 2022 the fall zone was cut in half from 300 feet (2x the tower’s height) to 150 feet (1x the tower’s height). But the Board did so based on false information.

It is important to be clear about what happened. The Planning Board shares no responsibility whatsoever for the propagation of false information. That fault falls squarely on Elite and its attorney. Instead, the Board is to be commended for the zeal it has shown concerning public safety as was evident in the Board members’ vigorous cross-examination of Elite’s attorney. But lest that display be deemed a charade, the Board now has no choice but to veto this tower because its rationale for approving it was based on the fallacious assumption that the tower could telescope, thus rendering the fall zone irrelevant.

This Tower Is Obsolete and Serves No Purpose.

The raison d'être for the Springs Fire Department tower has always been that cell service in Springs was deficient -- some even called it non-existent. But the recent activation of the 185-foot multi-carrier cell tower at Camp Blue Bay, which hosts the town of East Hampton Police Department Emergency Services antennas just 0.9 mi from Elite’s tower, and AT&T’s 70-foot tower at St. Peter’s Chapel on Old Stone Highway just 2.0 mi from Elite’s tower, have rendered the Elite Tower entirely superfluous. The presumption that cell service in Springs is inadequate is now old news, indeed it is now fake news.

Anyone who lives in Springs can attest to the dramatic improvement in cell service since these new towers came on stream. This eyewitness evidence is confirmed by the Federal Communications Commission’s National Broadband Map which shows that reception in Springs is 100% for all major wireless carriers. Here is the link to the FCC map: https://broadbandmap.fcc.gov/location-summary/mobile?version=jun2025&location_id=26c61a67-d6fa-4718-ba59-caa82f53d2f9&addr1=179+FORT+POND+BLVD&addr2=EAST+HAMPTON%2C+NY+11937&zoom=15.00&vlon=-72.157936&vlat=41.026225&env=0&tech=tech4g.

Further, any intermittent coverage gaps (caused by brick buildings or tree clusters or dips in the road) will soon be eliminated by 61 micro-antenna (five-feet high and attached to telephone poles) which Crown Castle has already begun to install throughout Springs. The efficacy of a micro-antenna has already been demonstrated by the antennas that have already been put up in the "Napeague strip" of Montauk Highway which had been a notorious dead zone but which now has robust cell service due to the micro-antennas installed last summer by Crown Castle.

It should also be noted that the “Wireless Telecommunications Master Plan” prepared by CityScape consultants and adopted in April 2024 by the Town of East Hampton states that micro-antennas (and not macro towers like the 150-foot Elite Tower) are the best way to plug isolated gaps in cell service.

Elite Towers bears responsibility for the obsolescence of its tower. Had Elite embraced the ZBA’s directive and filed an application in 2015 (instead of suing the ZBA in State Court and losing five years later), its tower would probably have been approved many years ago. But now, the “need” for this cell tower has disappeared because of all the newly installed wireless infrastructure. In short, the window of opportunity has closed due to Elite’s intransigence.

The Elite Tower Will Not Provide Nor Is It Necessary for It to Provide Emergency Communications.

The Elite tower is not only unnecessary for providing cell phone service, it is also entirely unnecessary for emergency services because by dialing 911, a caller’s phone, regardless of his or her service provider, will be connected to the nearest emergency service dispatcher. Moreover, the police department’s emergency service tower antennas at Camp Blue Bay provide the emergency services communications interface for all first responders in the Town of East Hampton, including the Springs Fire Department. It should also be noted that the Camp Blue Bay tower now performs a dual function: besides being used for all Town of East Hampton emergency services dispatch and communications with all East Hampton first responder organizations, including police, ambulance, and fire (including the Springs Fire Department), it can also serve as the nearest cell tower for Springs residents to connect to in case of an emergency.

Towers Cut 10% To 20% Or More From Home Values.

There are 112 homes within a half-mile radius of the proposed tower installation site. According to Zillow, the average home value is $ 1,797,518. A 10% loss of value equates to $ 179,751.80 and a 20% loss equates to $359,503.60. That’s a high price to pay for an ugly, unnecessary, and carcinogenic tower.

Cell Towers Damage Wildlife and Wetlands, Both of Which are to Be Protected Under The Town Of East Hampton Municipal Code.

Elite hired VHB Engineering from Hauppauge whose report is included in the application under the Planning Board’s review. The report is rife with false statements. It says that the tower is not near any wetlands, but the tower is 1,959 feet from Accabonac Harbor and 2,417 feet from Pussy’s Pond. Towers devastate wildlife, birds in particular. In 2014, the U.S. Department of the Interior estimated that 6.7 million birds annually are killed from collisions with cell towers in the U.S. and Canada. The Department of the Interior also cites scientific studies that cell tower radiation kills nesting birds and their offspring. VHB’s report is replete with falsehoods which were made to support Elite’s application.

VHB’s report also claims that no wildlife will be disturbed in the vicinity of the Elite Tower. But how can anyone believe that is true? There is a nest on top of Elite’s own tower that was built by a family of five Osprey that returns every summer. And neighbors whose backyard is contiguous to the Fire Department property, using the Bird App from Cornell University, recorded 45 different species of birds in their yard, including rare and protected species such as the Northern and Red Winged Woodpeckers.

The VHB report also falsely states that the Elite Tower will cause no harm to the Long-eared bat, an endangered species that is known to inhabit the area surrounding the Springs Fire Department, but which VHB claims has not been seen there. But, as all we neighbors know, these Long-eared bats come out at night during the summer like clockwork and circle our yards, and they are welcome guests too because they feast on mosquitos.

For all the reasons stated above, we implore the Town Planning Board to reject Elite Towers’ application to make this 150-foot industrial monstrosity legal. The tower is being shoehorned into a densely populated neighborhood and will be an eyesore in the protected Accabonac Harbor viewshed. Approval of this project will drastically devalue property, pose serious threats to public safety and wildlife, and shatter the quiet splendor of the Springs hamlet that we love.

In order to defeat this life-threatening tower, we urge you to sign this petition and speak out against it in person at the public hearing. We expect the Planning Board to convene the public hearing in the next 30 to 60 days. We will keep you posted as to the hearing date. The public hearing will be held at 6:30pm ET at Town Hall at 159 Pantigo Road, East Hampton. If you cannot attend in person, please dial in at (351) 888-6331 at about 6:45pm ET on the date of the hearing (and someone from the Planning Department will call you back during the proceeding and play your comments out loud for the audience). Written comments may also be emailed to the Planning Board at PlanningBoard@EHamptonNY.Gov. We encourage you to enter you comments on the public record by emailing them to the Planning Board, which you may do up until one-hour before the commencement of the public hearing.