URGENT!!!  Verizon Wireless is planning to build a telecommunications tower at the Grace Point Church on Lester Road.  This tower, that will stand 151 feet tall, will be an eyesore, will decrease our home values and will pose a potential health risk to our children.

The planning has been going on for years at the church and months with the Apopka City Planning Commission.  At this time, they meet all regulations for a special exception.  The only way to stop this special exception from being granted by the Planning Commission is through a public outcry. 

We, the undersigned, as concerned Apopka residents, ask the Apopka Planning Commission NOT to allow a special exception for the building of the 151 foot Verizon Wireless Telecommunication Tower within the residential single-family zoning district on the property of Semoran Baptist Church or Grace Point Church.

We agree with other neighborhoods, cities, counties, schools, organizations and courts around the world who are saying NO to wireless facilities with antennae in their neighborhoods for one or all of the following reasons:

1. Aesthetics: Our neighborhood is comprised primarily of residential homes.  The proposed wireless facility with its antennae doesn't fit in with the environment and is incompatible with the character of our neighborhood. Since numerous special exceptions have been granted already, the weak ordinance, or enforcement of the existing ordinance, jeopardizes home values and threatens the quality of life in our community. We need to have faith and reliance on the ordinances and the people elected to enforce them!


2. Devaluation of real estate. Dr. Sandy Bond did a study that found a decrease in home value between 2 and 20% of property near cell phone towers.  Stanley Hamilton and Gregory Schwann found that properties adjacent to high-voltage electrical transmission lines lost 6.3 percent of their value as a result of visual impacts


3. Health Risk: Residents, citing the precautionary principle and recent scientific studies, don't want the adverse health effects and increased cancer rates associated with wireless facilities and antennae.  Dr. Gerard Hyland, a physicist who was nominated twice for the Nobel Prize in medicine, says, Existing safety guidelines for cell phone towers are completely inadequate ... Quite justifiably, the public remains skeptical of attempts by governments and industry to reassure them that all is well, particularly given the unethical way in which they often operate symbiotically so as to promote their own vested interests.   Children are especially vulnerable to absorbing electromagnetic and radio frequency radiation, and so we don't want this facility being placed so close to homes where children play, learn and live. 


4. Existing Adequate Coverage: We already have adequate cell phone and wireless data coverage in the area surrounding area so we don't need a new Verizon wireless tower. Even the Verizon%u2019s website shows ample coverage. 


5. Alternative Locations:  There is plenty of open land available for a cell phone tower removed from residential neighborhoods.

The Apopka Planning Commission needs to join us in saying NO to the building of the Verizon Wireless Telecommunication Tower at Grace Point Church, or Semoran Baptist Church. 

Thank you for time and attention.