Letters

Please let it be known that at the Southampton Town Planning Board meeting of June 26, agenda item No. 4 was: “Homeland Towers’ pre-submission conference,” which discussed the site plan for placement of a 125-foot wireless telecommunications facility, a monopole with external antennas, and two alternatives — a 130-foot monopole tree, or a 140-foot flagpole — and accessory structures on a 4.1-acre parcel, with a single-family residence and adjacent to freshwater wetlands, located in the R-40 zoning district at 484 North Magee Street.

Incredibly, although I have resided at my location on North Magee Street for the last 31 years, I was unaware of anything related to this proposal and have since discovered that none of my neighbors were aware either. No one was contacted by Homeland Towers.

Why would a project of this proportion not be made public knowledge? Why were the homeowners along North Magee Street not notified of this proposal?

What are the deleterious health risks to all those living in the umbrella of this type of structure? Where are other towers located? What are the visual impacts?

I am writing this letter to make all of the community aware. A proposal of this magnitude demands scrutiny and therefore needs to be in the public eye for many of the critical underlying concerns.

North Magee Street is a densely populated portion of Southampton Town, with numerous young families, along with elderly. The suggestion that a 125-to-130-foot monopole could be erected at 484 North Magee Street, a residential property, is utterly outrageous.

There is currently a bill in the New York State Assembly that was created to study the environmental and health effects of wireless technology. We need to be cognizant of the fact that, according to the language of Bill No. A08637, “while wireless technology will greatly increase device connectivity, it may also pose significant risks to humans, animals, and the environment due to increased radio frequency radiation exposure.”

It is further a matter of public record that over 220 of the world’s leading scientists have signed an appeal to the World Health Organization and the United Nations to protect the health of the public from wireless radiation. Governmental data collection supports the link between radio-frequency radiation and cancers, fertility, the heart and nervous system, sleep, vision and hearing, and effects on children (The National Center for Biotechnology Information, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2019].

In conclusion, this submission must be denied because of its proposed location in a densely populated residential area. Homeland Towers must remove this inappropriate proposal and research a different alternative.

I trust the Planning Board will protect my health and safety and that of my neighbors, and deny this applicant’s site plan application.

Mary Nanos

Tuckahoe