Connexa propose 15.5m tall cell tower directly in front of my house - help me
I got a letter in the mail today by Connexa, some subsidiary of Spark NZ telling me that they've submitted a resource consent to Tauranga City Council to build a 15.5m tall, 750mm diameter cell tower directly in front of my home. (AI photo)
The proposed structure is not compliant with NES-T requirements, which essentially govern the size of a structure that telecommunications companies can build in residential areas. Currently it's over twice as tall and over twice as big as nearby existing power poles.
However, the biggest punch in the gut is that the company simply has to apply for resource consent which council *must* approve!?
This tower is directly in front of my living room and upstairs bedroom windows.
I've just spent a couple of hundred thousand dollars totally renovating my house over the last 12 months, I completely reoriented my house to have the entrance on the other side of the property and built a new driveway gate in preparation for the new driveway that will lead to the new entrance. The gate was the first thing I built during the renovation project but did not submit for the driveway because pouring the driveway is the last thing I'll do and up until this morning - I had no clue that this cell tower would be proposed right in front of my home.
I'm beside myself because not only is the cell tower a visually extreme behemoth that will be the only view my house has, it's also directly in the path of the driveway I have been planning to put in for the last 12 months!
I submit an application to council for the driveway out of urgency as soon as I got the letter, explaining that the gate had already been built in preparation for the driveway to go in.
I fear that if this proposal is allowed to go ahead, it's going to absolutely nuke my property value, its absurdly inappropriate to build in a quiet residential street directly in front of where people are living.
I feel totally bullied into submission and don't know what to do. I was told it's not worth to pursue it legally as it would cost $40,000 to take it to the high court.
This just isn't right that a company can do this to me and I can't defend myself.
Does anyone have advice?