Chesterfield Resident Unhappy with AT&T Antenna Upkeep on Her Street

AT&T workers drive pickup trucks on neighborhood common ground to equipment sheds, digging up the ground as they go. That's why a Deerhorn Drive resident is against G4 antennas being added to what's already there.

The Chesterfield Planning Commission, Monday night, heard public comments about proposed G4 antennas to be added to existing antenna towers on Deerhorn Drive and Baxter Road. AT&T would like to add the G4 capability as soon as possible.

Chesterfield planner Shawn Seymour explained the project to the commission, and Tina Koncki, a real estate agent representing AT&T, was there to answer questions.

The tower on Deerhorn Drive is approximately 170 feet high. The G4 antennas wouldn’t add to that. The tower on Baxter Road is 114 feet high, and the additional antennas would take it up to 125 feet. Height isn’t the issue, though. Deerhorn Drive resident Marlene Lischwe said she doesn’t want any more AT&T equipment added to a residential street.

“There is already a large tower with the equipment building underneath,” Lischwe said. “When the building was built it was landscaped. It has not been maintained.”

She said her subdivision maintains the 17-acre property the antenna sits on, including plantings around the building.

“They don’t have respect for any of the property around it,” Lischwe said. “That’s why I’m in opposition to this, unless something is explained to me, as a homeowner on Deerhorn Drive, that it will be maintained.”

Commission member Connie Fults asked about who is responsible for the upkeep.

Lischwe said, “I just assumed that if they spent all the money to put in all those trees and bushes they would take care of them.” She found out six months later that maintenance is up to the subdivision.

Fults said the long-term maintenance shouldn’t fall on a subdivision. She said it should be AT&T’s job.

Member Bruce DeGroot said he didn’t think the City of Chesterfield could dictate who should keep up the plants. He said he understood Koncki’s explanation of the issue to be that each lease for each tower site is different.

A resolution wasn’t reached for Lischwe in the meeting, but after it was over, Lischwe, Seymour and Koncki were speaking.

The planning commission does not vote on telecommunication siting permits.