Evanston's big ugly boxes...

Here's one of my articles from last week:

After months of controversy about the size and location of AT&T above-ground Video Ready Access Device (VRAD) boxes, the City of Evanston Rules Committee voted Monday to further research the units before allowing AT&T to restart construction.

Though the city cannot legally stop AT&T from installing VRADs, members from the citizen-led Stop the Box organization said the city has not taken advantage of its home-rule rights, which allow it to dictate where boxes are located.

Several aldermen, however, said permits have already been issued to AT&T, making it almost impossible to stop the company’s progress on the project short of a lawsuit.

“We’re gun shy because we’re poor,” 4th Ward Alderman Steven Bernstein said. “That’s been governing our entire analysis of this problem. We don’t want to get into a lawsuit that we think we are going to lose just to slow them down.”

The only way the city can legally revoke AT&T’s permits is if the company acts fraudulently, outside of the rules of the permit or unsafely, Evanston’s attorney said.

Fraud attorney Neal Levin, a representative for Stop the Box, who suggested a citizen commission be formed to enforce permit regulations, said this entire scenario could have been prevented if the city had known its legal rights to begin with.

“I believe the city is working under the misguided fear that it had no recourse against AT&T’s intrusion into this marketplace. And we do,” Levin said. “We have the upper hand here.”

Despite criticism by Evanston citizens that the city has not been trying to resolve the VRAD problems, Evanston staff attorney Ken Cox said city staff have been working closely with AT&T representatives all year.

“There’s only so much parkway with which to work,” Cox said, “and there are only so many places where the boxes can’t be put. We can’t stop them from putting them in somewhere. Staff has just been working to try to find the best, most suitable locations for them to build.”

Cox said that though this is a problem that many cities are dealing with nationwide, others have tried to sue AT&T over conflicts with the size and location of VRAD boxes and failed to win.

Eighth Ward Alderman Ann Rainey said further analysis into the city’s legal rights is needed before a lawsuit can even be considered.

After debating whether to take immediate action, the Rules Committee decided to pass on the issue to the Site Plan and Appearance Review Committee for consideration before making a final recommendation to the City Council. The Site Plan and Appearance Review Committee will meet next Wednesday, March 4 at 2:30 p.m. in the Evanston Civic Center.