We have recently been notified that the city’s proposed three-story 5G transmission towers will have to undergo Section 106 review, a federal-level review designed to prevent negative impacts upon historic resources. This is good news for our neighborhoods as we work to prevent these oversized and in many cases unnecessary towers from being located in our midst — read the letter from the Federal Communications Commission to CityBridge, the firm installing the towers. Installation is not supposed to proceed until that review process has been completed.

This action comes after inquiries from Congressman Jerrold Nadler. Thanks also go to our friends at Save Gansevoort and the Carnegie Hill Neighbors for their work on this.

Any tower proposed for a historic district or landmarked site will still have to go through the city’s public review process via the Landmarks Preservation Commission. However, we don’t yet know what that process will look like or how the appropriateness of the proposed siting will be evaluated. The city’s rollout of this program has been haphazard and inconsistent, and involves contradictory statements about where towers would go and why. We continue to push back on the need for and appropriateness of many of the proposed installations.