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HOA Communities: The Benefits of Allowing a Cell Tower

Are you considering having a cell tower built in your HOA community? Read here to learn about some of the benefits.
Amanda Causey | Mar 28, 2024 | 3 min read
Woman talking on cell phone near cell tower in HOA community

As people increasingly use cellular technology to communicate, wireless carriers such as T-Mobile and Sprint continue to look for new cell tower sites, where erecting towers would expand the service area and/or improve the quality cellular connectivity.

Although many HOA communities and their management companies oppose petitions to build a cell tower on community property due to aesthetic concerns, there are also plenty of good reasons for a neighborhood to approve a carrier’s building plans, four of which are listed below. 

1. Additional Monthly Income

After it forms a lease agreement with the carrier, the community will receive monthly rent payments for leasing the cell tower site to the carrier. In many cases, the payments amount to thousands of dollars a month. What’s more, the amount received can often be doubled or tripled by allowing other wireless carriers to “co-locate” towers or antennas at the cell tower site.

2. Opportunity to Sell the Lease

In addition to receiving monthly income from a cellular lease, the community would also have the opportunity to sell the lease to a company that purchases streams of income from cellular leases.

The company pays the seller a lump sum of money via a non-recourse transaction that permits the seller to keep the sale proceeds, regardless of how the lease performs after it is sold. When the lease period ends, the community retakes control of the lease and can do with it as it pleases.

3. Improved Cellular Service

Because wireless carriers choose tower locations based on service needs, there is a good chance that having a new cell tower in the community would improve cellular service for residents who use the carrier’s services.

Unreliable cellular service is more than just annoying; it can also present a safety problem if people are unable to reach the police, medical first responders, or the fire department in an efficient manner.

4. Tenant Request Management

Throughout the course of the lease, it is not uncommon for the tenant to make various types of requests, from asking for the rent rate to be lowered to asking for better access to the tower site. For HOA boards that are already busy with managing the community, addressing tenant requests can be burdensome, to say the least.

If your board of directors is in this position, it can outsource tenant request management to a cellular lease management firm or an experienced provider of HOA management services.

Final Thoughts

If your association-governed community is considering a wireless carrier’s proposal to build a cell tower on community ground, there are four reasons to grant permission: additional monthly income could be earned, the lease could be sold for a lump sum payment, cellular service is likely to improve, and managing the carrier’s requests can be handled by a third party.

For more information about the benefits of allowing a cell tower to be built in your community, contact us today.

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