By Jason Schultz

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Posted: 1:38 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2010

ROYAL PALM BEACH — while good fences may make good neighbors, a 100-foot cellphone tower does not, according to residents and officials in the unincorporated Acreage.

"That wasn’t very neighborly of them to keep us out of the process when our residents are the ones that have to look at it," said Mike Erickson, a board member for the Indian Trail Improvement District, which governs aspects of The Acreage such as drainage and roads.

Board members such as Erickson and President Michelle Damone are upset with Royal Palm Beach after the cellphone tower was erected at the northern edge of the village’s boundary on a canal that runs along 40th Street North.

The tower is next to a county-owned water pump station but is on village-owned land at the northern edge of the property that used to be the village’s wastewater treatment plant.

Damone said she is upset that the village council approved the tower without notifying residents along 40th Street who are closest to the new tower, or notifying the Indian Trail Improvement District of what was coming.

"they wouldn’t have done that to their residents," Damone said.

Royal Palm Beach records show that the tower was unanimously approved by the village council on April 1. Nobody from the public spoke for or against the tower.

Village Manager Ray Liggins said the village followed its notification rules for development projects, which require notifying property owners within 300 feet of the proposed project. The closest homeowner was 306 feet away, he said.

Liggins said the village has an existing lease with a cellphone company for a tower on the wastewater plant property dating to 1997.

Earlier this year, the village was exploring plans to try to develop the property into research facilities and possibly a college campus. Having a cellphone tower in the middle of the property created a hindrance to any development plans that might come in the future.

That was why village officials decided to move the tower to the northern edge of the property, Liggins said. once construction is completed on the new tower, the existing cellphone tower in the middle of the treatment plant site will be removed.

Damone said the village’s notification practices seemed inadequate in this situation. The tower is on the southern bank of the canal, so by the time the canal and 40th Street are crossed it is more than 300 feet. but she said residents can see the tower much farther away than 300 feet because of how tall it is.

Carolyn Abbey, who lives more than a quarter-mile away at the corner of 123rd Terrace and 40th Street, said she has a clear view of the tower in her back yard.

"Don’t we get a vote on this?" Abbey asked. "It is an eyesore."

Village Councilwoman Martha Webster said she was unaware that residents in The Acreage were upset about the new tower, and when she voted on it she didn’t think anybody would be bothered. she said she would probably discuss the matter with Liggins and see if the village needs to adjust its notification requirements in the future to make sure Acreage residents on the border are aware of projects.

"We definitely want to be good neighbors," Webster said.