Can You Hear Me Now? Verizon Starts Construction On Rye 'Unipole'

RYE, NY — Visiting the Purchase Street business district all but requires a phone, from using the parking to, in some cases, reading menus, but for Verizon and other mobile customers, finding a signal hasn't always been a given. City and Verizon officials said "extra bars" are on the way, but expressed some dissatisfaction with the results.

The Rye City Council, in October 2022, approved a settlement after years of litigation with Verizon over the positioning of cell antennas in or near the central business district. That settlement will result in the construction, beginning this week, by Verizon of an 80- foot "unipole" capable of serving several carriers. The new tower will be located on the wooded hillside adjoining the railroad station parking lot and to the east of the police station.

This spot was initially planned as the location of a fifty-percent taller cell tower that was the subject of a settlement by a prior administration in 2006 with a different cell carrier. However, that carrier never started construction.

The city noted that federal law provides significant advantages to telecommunications companies in litigation against municipalities like Rye.

In 2019, the city council denied Verizon’s application to place antennas in a residential area on Purchase Street because Verizon’s proposed antennas would violate the city’s wireless law.

Instead of working on a solution with the city and reapplying (as suggested), the city said Verizon chose to bring a federal telecommunications lawsuit against Rye. The city council, seeking a less litigious solution, entered into a settlement with Verizon in the mistaken belief that a unipole could be based immediately adjacent to the railroad station lot and at the level of the lot.

The council learned only later on that the MTA, not the city, owns the bottom of the hillside and the court ordered the unipole to be sited on higher city property. In accordance with that order, the city has permitted project.