'Skipped all their own rules': Buffalo Township resident sues municipality to block cell tower

Editor’s note: This story was updated on Monday, Feb. 12, to include a statement from Buffalo Township’s solicitor.

Lynn Shearer’s opposition wasn’t enough to stop Buffalo Township from approving a Verizon cell tower on his neighbor’s property in December.

Now he’s taking the township to court for an alleged failure to make Verizon prove its compliance with federal, state and local regulations, hoping to block the tower’s installation less than 400 feet from his front door.

“They’ve skipped all their own rules,” Shearer said. “The big loss is: Why is it so close to my house?”

Shearer’s home at 240 Monroe Road sits on a 54-acre property that has been in his family for five generations, though he leases most of it to farmers. He’s worried that the 195-foot tower would hurt the charm and value of this land, not to mention that of his neighbors.

“Whenever I look out over the farms around me, the first thing I’m going to see is a big cellphone tower,” Shearer said.

The tower would be located just one door down from Shearer at 233 Monroe Road, the owners of which are leasing the land to Verizon. Butler County property records show Jack and Terry Macurdy as owners of the 76-acre parcel. For properties in an A-1 agricultural district, such as this, township zoning code lists communications towers as a conditional use.

Shearer first discovered the plans after spotting land surveyors near his home. A public hearing on the conditional use permit was held on Oct. 11, resulting in the proposal being tabled for two months before getting final approval on Dec. 13.

The appeal, filed on Jan. 10 in the Butler County Court of Common Pleas, argues the Buffalo Township Board of Supervisors “abused its discretion and committed errors of law” in granting conditional use approval to Verizon. It raises concerns over the nearby gas lines, inadequate plans for an access road and failure to show Shearer’s house on plans included in the company’s application.

Buffalo Township’s written decision on the tower notes that approval is contingent on Verizon providing a geotechnical and structural analysis, a dust-free access road and approval from the gas line owner as well as complying with recommendations from the township engineer.

Verizon has also become involved in the case after Judge Michael Yeager granted its petition to intervene on Feb. 7.

Buffalo Township solicitor Brian Farrington of Charlton Law Firm said at the Dec. 13 meeting that he empathized with Shearer, but couldn’t risk a costly lawsuit by denying Verizon, according to a report in the Butler Eagle.

“If I would tell them no, then the township’s got to pay for me to go to court and litigate,” Farrington said. “I have an obligation as their solicitor to not put them in a situation where they’re defending something like this.”

On Monday, Farrington clarified his comments in a message to TribLive, stressing that the Verizon application was considered according to all of the township’s regulations concerning cell phone towers and that his concerns about a lawsuit stemmed from the township considering factors outside existing regulations.

“Any comment regarding the risk of litigation is in reference to responsibility by the Township to not arrive at a decision that considers any extraneous factors not provided by law,” Farrington wrote.

Joseph Cortese, a lawyer with Sittig Cortese, LLC, who’s representing Verizon, did not respond to requests for comment. Shearer’s attorney, John Linkosky of John Linkosky and Associates, deferred questions to the court documents.

Shearer noted that he can see four cell towers from his home and doesn’t understand the need for another.

“I would have a really hard time fighting this if I had no signal at all. It would benefit me, too,” Shearer said. “We have the signal, we have the strength, I don’t see the reason the tower is being put there.”