Dozens of metal poles are sprouting up across East Hampton Town this fall. These “small cell” towers, each 42 feet tall, are the first of 192 planned across the town, most of them in Springs and Northwest, and they’re catching residents off guard.
Neighbors on Montauk Avenue off Hand’s Creek Road organized after one of the poles was erected in the town-owned right of way on their street on Oct. 8, without any advance notification. The small cell towers, no taller than a utility pole, are subject only to administrative permits. The poles carry technology that addresses gaps in wireless service and coverage.
After the Montauk Avenue pole went up, Charlotte Yerkovich, who lives on the street, quickly set out to organize her neighborhood and did so with a neighbor handout.
“I woke up to a massive metal pole being erected directly across from my bedroom window, completely unobstructed,” she wrote in the handout. “We were given no opportunity to object, question the location or propose alternatives before the town approved construction.”
“Outrageous,” said Albert Intreglia, another Montauk Avenue resident, speaking during the public comment portion of Tuesday’s town board meeting.
“Here! Here!” shouted someone from the audience, which applauded when Mr. Intreglia said, “I cannot believe that we, as taxpaying citizens, are out of the picture with respect to this whole project.”
“It’s remarkable no one noticed and said, ‘Maybe we should look for another location rather than on this man’s front lawn,’ “ said Mike Alexander.
The group peppered the town board with emails. They focused on aesthetics, health concerns over radio frequencies, noise from the pole’s internal cooling fan, but mostly, it seemed, the surprise of it all.
The onslaught of negative correspondence led Tina Vavilis LaGarenne, the town’s planning director, to quickly develop a presentation. Darryl Forster, senior external affairs manager at Arium Networks, formerly known as Crown Castle, the company that is erecting the poles, also provided the board with an update.
Last year, The Star reported that this “deployment” of cell towers was coming. In fact, by May 2025, Crown Castle had applications for 150 in Northwest Woods and Springs alone, and said 129 could be operational by that December. The project was delayed, but it appears it is now moving quickly. Each pole could hold three wireless carriers, but there is no guarantee carriers won’t install their own poles, potentially close to the Arium poles.
Paul Field, a Wainscott resident, also spoke at Tuesday’s meeting to complain about another small cell tower that had been erected at the intersection of Wainscott Stone Road and Sayre’s Path.
“I find it surprising that such a tower would be placed in such a beautiful area,” he told the board.
Mr. Forster’s presentation, which included bullet points like, “Small cells make communities safer, better places to live,” also had a summary of their overall deployment.
Of 192 sites within the town (all located within town, county, or state rights of way), only 18 poles are complete, with another 174 in progress. By the end of 2026, he projected 21 more would be complete. Next year sees the big bump, with 83 new poles to be erected in the first half of 2027 and 70 more in the second half.
Broken down by hamlet, East Hampton will see the most small cells, with 98 poles, then Springs with 58, Amagansett with 29, and finally Wainscott with seven. Mr. Forster didn’t provide numbers for Montauk.
Ms. Vavilis LaGarenne’s presentation focused on federal regulations regarding small wireless service facilities. Her overarching point? There isn’t a whole lot the town can do, though she acknowledged recent poles “have raised a lot of questions.”
In the last 15 years, federal rules have hamstrung local governments’ ability to deny wireless facilities. “The town cannot stand in the way of deployment,” she said. “The town cannot dictate where these poles have to go.” There is little leeway; placement is based on the wireless provider’s coverage objectives, which were not shared with the town.
Further, the town has only 10 days to review new applications, which “doesn’t give us a whole lot of time to review,” she said. And as far as notifying neighbors in that very small window?
“You cannot require notifications, that’s one of the things you’re not allowed to ask for,” she said.
So, the surprise of neighbors seems to be by design. Once a pole is up, it’s up.
While town code called for at least 100 feet between residences and the poles, and the neighbors on Montauk Avenue said the offending pole was less than 100 feet from at least one residence, Ms. Vavilis LaGarenne said “We do try to keep them away from homes. There is a 100-foot setback, but that is not an absolute right.”
“They really tied our hands,” said Town Supervisor Kathee Burke-Gonzalez.
“The federal government? Yeah,” said Ms. Vavilis LaGarenne.
It isn’t clear what can be done. Councilman David Lys told Mr. Forster he’d prefer to see wooden poles instead of metal poles. Councilwoman Cate Rogers pleaded with him to establish some kind of “good neighbor policy.”
Supervisor Burke-Gonzalez said perhaps the board could have another discussion at its Nov. 10 meeting. Then it was over. The group of neighbors followed Mr. Forster into the hallway.
“I almost feel like this was a mistake,” Giselle Feder said to him. “I saw another, it was in a wooded area, there were no houses around it. Could you remove it?” she asked, innocently.
Mr. Forster nodded in understanding, but he was noncommittal.
