67-Foot-Tall Radio Antenna Upsets Neighbors

James Setzler is serious about his ham radio avocation. So serious, in fact, that he recently replaced a large antenna afixed to the side of his house on Sylvan Drive with an even larger antenna – this one reaching 67 feet into the air – held in place with stanchions bolted to concrete footings at three corners of his property.

"This antenna will allow me to communicate more reliably with other parts of the world," said Setzler last week.

For neighbors, however, the antenna is an eyesore. 

"A nice residential neighborhood now looks like a commercial cell tower zone," said Derek Moscarelli, who lives on Verndale, next door to the Setzlers.

He and others have contacted the town to see if something could be done about the antenna. The answer, according to town building official John Hoyle: the antenna is allowed.

Hoyle listed the various items exempted from the town's height restriction, including church spires, flag poles, chimneys, weather vanes ... and radio antenna.

"It says it right there, it’s not ambiguous at all," he said. "If there were a height restriction on radio antennae and he wanted to go higher, he would have had to petition the Zoning Board of Review for a dimensional variance. It would have been listed in the newspaper and everybody within 200 feet of his property would have been notified in a certified mailing and they could have come to the public forum and they could have spoken about their concerns."

But there is no height restriction. 

"Just because you don’t like it doesn’t necessarily mean he can’t make full beneficial use of his property," Hoyle said. "You have to provide somebody full beneficial use of their property."

Setzler, a retired engineer, has lived in East Greenwich for 30 years and from his perspective, the antenna is kind of like the trailer that sits in someone's driveway, or the odd color someone decides to paint their house. Who legislates eyesore?

Setzler communicates by ham radio daily, he said. He concedes he could just pick up a phone or log onto a computer to talk to people in other parts of the world, but he said, “What sport is that? What fun is that?” 

For Setzler, ham radio combines technical, social and competitive aspects. And the new antenna was a real challenge.

"I designed it and built it," he said. It is designed to withstand 130 mile per hour winds. Setzler pointed out that ham radio operators can end up being important communication links in cases of emergency. For instance, he said, if a hurricane knocks out power in Florida, ham operators there could relay important information to ham operators in, say, East Greenwich. (There are 71 FCC-licensed amateur radio operators in EG.)

Town Planner Lisa Bourbonnais, who had not seen the antenna when interviewed about it last week, said it comes down to what is or is not a structure. Setzler's antenna is bolted to the house but based on the ground, right next to the house. 

"When we wrote that [height] exemption, we were not picturing a structure," Bourbonnais said. "Clearly our zoning code hasn’t anticipated this very well and doesn’t deal with it adequately and it’s probably a loophole that he can have it. It’s not something we ever pictured." 

"It's a nice neighborhood," said Derek Moscarelli via email. "Everyone has been so nice and cordial to each other, we all say hello and speak to each other, look out for one another, etc. This antenna may be allowable in the eyes of the law, but it is so out of place in a small residential neighborhood with the properties so close to each other."

He continued, "We want the town officials to address and recognize this moving forward. Should there be height restrictions, placement restrictions, etc., for future amateur radio hobbyists? This is what this is, a hobby.... Let's start a conversation and help future EG residents avoid something like this in their neighborhood."