January 17, 2023

Hubbard Farms Neighborhood Association Minutes

January 17, 2023, 6:30pm-8:00pm

1. Welcome and Introductions
   1. Board: Mike Smith, Mary Clare Duran (treasurer), Zeb Smith, Myett Risker, Adriana Zuniga, Monte
   2. Residents: Caton Arreguin, Deb Sumner, Antonio Gomez (25th St), Alex Walling (Porter), Janet Ray, Vic Abla, Alicia Ramirez, Liz Rooney
   3. Other: Greg Clark (AT&T), Keith Shepherd (AT&T)
2. Board positions and officers
   1. Officers – need a secretary. 
   2. New board – Caton nominated.
   3. Discuss both of these on board email list.
3. Approve 2023 meeting dates:
   1. February 21
   2. March 21
   3. April 18
   4. May 16
   5. June 20
   6. July 18
   7. August 15
   8. September 19
   9. October 17
   10. November 21 (week of Thanksgiving)
   11. December 19
   12. Resolved – calendar items to board email list and HFNA list. Try first for google group.
4. AT&T presentation (10 min presentation; 20 min discussion)
   1. Greg Clark – external relations
   2. Keith Shepherd – TowerCo and they’re a business partner
   3. AT&T losing a tower near Ambassador Bridge
   4. TowerCo is a private cell tower company. This tower would start as AT&T’s but may include others.
   5. FirstNet – dedicated first responder network built on AT&T’s network in response to communication challenges during 9/11.
   6. Tower on Ambassador Bridge property to be decommissioned.
   7. 125’ tower. Could have branding on top like City of Detroit or HFNA signage. Could be signage or a water tower. Decorative fence possible plus landscaping around it.
   8. Why are you losing present location? Current landlord is evicting AT&T.
   9. What studies have been done around human/creature health around towers. FCC site and studies have shown radiation and it would affect someone if they were maintenance workers standing against it (like an x-ray tech), but they radiate below acceptable limit.
   10. Are there any more AT&T towers in the community? Towers are placed a certain distance apart and hand off calls between towers. There are some but not close by.
   11. Why was a tower decommissioned without a replacement? AT&T isn’t in control, trying to find an alternative now before eviction is complete.
       1. Another option is a portable cell tower on wheels within that search ring as a temporary option while they find a permanent tower location.
   12. How will tower impact community underneath it?
   13. Tower owner isn’t known (residents think it’s Marouns) but owners want to get the tower off for another potential use.
   14. Other owners besides DLBA – either non-response or a clear no. Other City park lands were prohibited from having a tower.
   15. AT&T is a business – are there economic payments to the community? AT&T is a for-profit business who charge residents for cell phones. Do they pay rent to residents for use of the local land? AT&T will pay rental fee to new owner, presumably TowerCo. So question is for TowerCo. The land isn’t owned by the neighborhood, it’s owned by the DLBA. TowerCo is willing to donate to the beautification or association itself – $25k to the association. Janet feels $25k is peanuts for the life of a child.
       1. HFNA has maintained that property for 40 years. Kept it green, maintained it, added a sign. Had DLBA donated this, this couldn’t have come up at all.
       2. Hard to swallow that there aren’t other options within that circle radius. Can we help in some way?
   16. Why is land owner doing this? Greg doesn’t know, isn’t sure AT&T spent much time trying to figure it out – they’re focused on what do they do next.
       1. Same owners wouldn’t let them go to any other of their parcels either.
   17. Small area – target came from AT&T RF manager. TowerCo found candidates outside that radius and they were rejected. Including areas by Riverside Park and DTE substation to SW. There are some sites further north along Vernor corridor too that were rejected for being too close to other towers on north side.
   18. TMobile or Verizon might also be on the decommissioned tower. All towers on Maroun land are being decommissioned, not just this one. This new tower might have several carriers on it, 3-4 carriers if they want to co-locate there.
   19. Keith to provide address of tower, although it’s a misnomer. Lat/Lon also.
   20. Antenna needs to be 120’ for height. If the building isn’t 12 stories, then answer is probably no for a tower. Towers can’t go on shorter buildings.
   21. Fenced-in area for tower is 60’ x 60’
   22. Why can’t the tower be built on an existing building?
   23. Next steps:
       1. Need more info on this from them, tower specifics + where they were considering.
       2. Health considerations.
       3. Other tower locations nearby, including competitor towers. Don’t need to reinvent the wheel.
       4. Other land they considered that we could be helpful with.
       5. Western-most boundary is Clark, eastern-most is bridge, northern-most is right along I-75, Lafayette is pushing it, river is too far south.
       6. Zeb – https://www.towermaps.com/the-map.html
       7. Only green space 
       8. Letter – Monte and Mary Clare and Mike – we had previously discussed purchasing the lot directly. 
5. Committee discussions:
   1. What committees do we need?
      1. E.g. recommendations on more effective board, email list decorum, Roberts Rules of Order for meetings
6. Resident Issues
7. Committee Updates
   1. Neighborhood Beautification Committee