Cell phone company sues Neb. village for denying tower; attorney says residents don’t want it

Cell phone company sues Neb. village over tower

OMAHA, Neb. — A cell phone company has filed a lawsuit against the village of Doniphan over the denial of a permit to build a new tower.

NE Colorado Cellular Inc., which does business as Viaero Wireless, says in filings in U.S. District Court that it wants to improve service in southeastern Nebraska but can’t do so without the 80-foot telecommunications tower.

Doniphan’s planning board denied a conditional-use permit for the tower March 8.

Village attorney Jim Truell said Thursday the denial was based on testimony at a public hearing in February. Residents who spoke at the hearing didn’t want the tower for aesthetic reasons. The proposed site is in a commercial zone that abuts a residential one.

Truell couldn’t recall how many people were at the hearing, but said the crowd was four times the size of a typical meeting.

Colorado Cellular said in the lawsuit filed Wednesday that computer models show the tower needs to be in that location in order to provide service for Doniphan and the surrounding areas.

The company said in court documents that the village violates federal telecommunications law by inhibiting its ability to provide cell phone service. It also said the village did not base the permit denial on evidence in the written record and failed to issue a formal denial.

The lawsuit seeks permit approval and unspecified monetary compensation.

Doniphan is about 145 miles west-southwest of Omaha.

In 2008, Colorado Cellular successfully sued Saunders County, in eastern Nebraska, over a similar permit denial. The company wanted to build a 330-foot tower in the middle of a row crop.

The Fort Morgan, Colo.-based company operates in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska and Wyoming.

On the Net:

U.S. District Court of Nebraska: www.ned.uscourts.gov