Pros and Cons of allowing Cell Tower on Property?

[Fuddyduddy1952]

We formed a group years ago to not allow tall cell towers in this county. We hired an expert to attend board meetings.
The upside is the property owner gets a monthly check.
Lots of downsides though. The tower leases space to providers so it becomes a Christmas tree. 200ft & taller must have a flashing light on top. Access must be available 24/7 for service, etc. Yes, it can really bother the neighbors as well as the skyline. Owner needs to check with their insurance agent about liability. Who takes it down if/when technology changes (i.e., switch to satellite).
There's only one skyline...how will it be affected?
Cell tower companies would rather have a few 300ft towers than many shorter ones, but our proposal was existing structures can be used: power line towers, inside church steeples, telephone poles, etc.
Me...I wouldn't have one on my property.

 

[bigtiller]

My brother was approached this week about placing a cell tower at the farm.

They did a site walk and it looks promising.

Another farm has a better location but absolutely refuses to allow a tower so the provider is scouting alternate locations.

Anything to watch out for?

Any questions we should be asking?

The proposed tower would be at the highest elevation at the property and visible but not necessarily a deal breaker.

Of course the county may nix the idea as it requires approval.

The standard fee is $2500 a month for 25 years... nothing said about free farm access or cell phones.

So far only a 3 hour site walk taking some measurements...

I have had a 250' free standing cell tower on my land for 17 years. The monthly check is nice, it is one reason why we were able to retire early.

If they are offering $2500 this early, they may negotiate a higher rent but a attorney with tower experience will help him a lot. Find that attorney and pay his price, he will pay for himself shortly.

End of use, taxes, COLA, insurance, removal, etc. wording is a necessity.

In my case, everything is a pro, with only 1 con....we get calls from tower management business that want to buy the contract from us for a VERY large sum of money.

 

[airbiscuit]

See if this site provides any insight. How Are Cell Tower Lease Rent Rates Determined?

 

[ultrarunner]

Yep… taxes are significant at 30k+ and that was after he contested… home isn’t much or outbuildings but a little country just across the city limits…

 

[2manyrocks]

If the tax assessor thinks lots of $ is coming in from the cell tower, could be another excuse to jack the property taxes. You might consider some kind of property tax pass through in the lease.

 

[ponytug]

@ultrarunner Talk to an attorney experienced at cell tower leases. Initial lease offers are usually way off (10-100x) what can be negotiated, but location, location, location. You want rights to subleases by others using the tower, height/size limits, escalation clauses, etc. The cell companies have been at this for decades and know really well how to insert gotcha clauses. Don't take the first offer, and if you are serious, talk to other cell providers, and leasing agents.

We looked into it for our place, as we are one of three properties able to site a tower to transmit to a large valley, but in the end decided that the impact (loss of flat space, access road, providing power) didn't outweigh the value of the lease payments and loss of property value as most residential buyers assign a significant negative value to a cell tower in proximity to where they plan to live. I seem to recall an attorney in the SE US who had carved out a niche for himself doing these transactions.

(We looked into horse trading fiber access for cell tower, and got nowhere; different groups, which was silly as fiber was very valuable to us, and not them, as our data use would have been round off error for them.)

YMMV.

All the best,

Peter

 

[r porter]

by all means get a lawyer. and get it done in your favor. there is lots that can go wrong. it may be worth the money but check it out.

i knew a guy that had several businesses and several cell towers. one of the towers had the lease come up for renewal and they met at the coffee shop to do the paper work. he said to them that the price was going up this time. they did not argue or blink, they just handed the deed to him and said its your tower now. they built a new tower a half mile away and he had a hard time finding a someone to lease it and he had to maintain it in the mean time. it was in a flight path, too. just one instance of a problem that can come up.

 

[ultrarunner]

Maybe a good platform for a zip line if the tower goes dormant?

Just being humorous…

I have been forwarding all comments to my brother…

He is a smart guy but this is his home…

He his the due diligence guy on shopping centers, hotels and heavy industrial…

I think they have sites with towers in other states.

I know the cell tower at the local Catholic Church is a lifeline otherwise it would have shuddered by now… keeps the signal from dropping on a critical section of freeway and you would never know it was there from church grounds…

As always the TBN brain trust is amazing!

 

[Yander]

Years ago i had the opportunity to have a tower put on my property. At that time I think it was roughly $1k per month. I didn't think about it long since I had neighbors close by and didn't want them to hate me. I went door to door and spoke to all of my neighbors though and said, I'm not going to put the tower up if you don't.

Guess what, two of them would have I'm certain but one guy's wife already ruled on it and threw away the letter. The other neighbor didn't get the letter but he sure was interested.

The neighbor across the street ended up with it, back behind his woods where you couldn't see it really. It was where it belonged. I lost some money but dignity is more important folks!

I could have really used the money then too. I've been pretty blessed though so no complaints.

 

[Jstpssng]

@ultrarunner Talk to an attorney experienced at cell tower leases. Initial lease offers are usually way off (10-100x) what can be negotiated, but location, location, location. You want rights to subleases by others using the tower, height/size limits, escalation clauses, etc. The cell companies have been at this for decades and know really well how to insert gotcha clauses. Don't take the first offer, and if you are serious, talk to other cell providers, and leasing agents.

Bingo!! A lawyer experienced in towers can make the difference between it being worthwhile or a PITA. We had an AM radio tower in our back field when I was growing up; sometimes the station would come in over the toilet.
About 10 years ago my father cancelled the lease, as he knew he was getting older and the land will likely be sold to a developer when my mother passes away. Funny thing is that it was moved to another tract nearby, so when I come around the last corner headed toward the house the tower is still on the skyline, where it's been since 1973.