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Article Courtesy of Channel
7 News Miami
By
Kevin Boulandier, Robbin Simmons
Published May 1, 2024
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WATCH VIDEO |
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SOUTHWEST MIAMI-Dade - A South Florida community is in an uproar over several 5G
cellphone towers that are popping up in their neighborhood.
In the past few months, residents in Kendall have seen massive poles pop up on
public sidewalks in the area of Southwest 117th Avenue and Killian Parkway. The
homeowners said this is an issue that is also happening in Naples and Tampa.
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Communication companies said they are
working to improve everyone’s connectivity, but members of
the Kendall Federation of Homeowner Associations said the
poles are an eyesore that could impact their health and
their property value.
At a meeting on Tuesday night, association leaders reacted
to the towers being placed in their neighborhoods.
“The community has screamed out to us about these towers
that keep popping up in their communities and coming soon to
where I live in Calusa,” said Kendall Federation of
Homeowner Associations President Michael Rosenberg. “I may
walk out one morning and, boom, there’s this 60-foot tower
in front of my house.”
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Miles Moss, who represents about 1,500 homes in the Winston Park community, said
the blame lies with the county.
“They have an off-duty officer with them that they hire, and they just start
putting the pole up. The county has issued the permit way in advance,” said
Moss.
Miami-Dade County officials declined to speak with 7News during Tuesday’s
meeting.
Homeowners said the county officials told them that the Florida Legislature tied
their hands with a new law that automatically grants permits to companies after
a certain amount of time.
“It’s an extremely attractive state law for the company that’s putting these up
because, again, there’s very little jurisdiction,” said Silvia Morales
Gutierrez, a homeowner in Glen Cove.
Homeowners at the meeting said they would like to see the same transparency
they’ve seen in the past with utility companies.
“AT&T talked about where the lines were going to go, ‘We’re going to put it
here, we need to go in your backyard, we need to do this here,'” said Moss.
“[Florida Power & Light] has done the same, the water department did the same,
but these guys, I don’t know who they are.”
7News did not immediately heard back from the communications company listed by
the homeowners.
But these homeowners are very motivated to get the state law changed. They said
they are organizing and in contact with their state representatives because they
don’t want this to happen to any other homeowner in Florida.
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