After protests, Fairfield Grace church pulls plug on plan for cell tower

After neighbors organized strong opposition to a plan by Fairfield Grace United Methodist Church to lease a portion of its property to AT&T to erect a wireless communications tower -- including a placard-waving protest in front of the church during last Sunday's services -- the church has decided to pull the plug on the deal.

The decision is a reversal of a vote by the church council, taken Sunday, to proceed with lease negotiations with AT&T despite the controversy.

However, in a statement posted Wednesday on the Fairfield Grace website, church leaders said they have changed their mind and suspended lease negotiations.

The church's cell tower task force, the statement reads, "has come to believe that an unfair burden that should reside with the town, the cell carrier and the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) has been placed on the church. Further, they have come to believe that another alternative cell site would be recommended and chosen. The task force recommended that lease negotiations with the cell carrier company be suspended. The council chair accepted the task force's recommendation."

The statement also says when the church "was first approached by the cell carrier company for this proposed land lease, the church's understanding was that the cell carrier company had the support of the Town of Fairfield for placing the cell site on its property. The church felt that if a cell site was going to be placed, then maybe the lease might be a blessing to help in its mission work here in Fairfield, as well as around the globe."

The church "entered into negotiations with the cell carrier company with very good intentions," the Rev. Kun Sam Cho, the pastor, says in the statement. "The money from the lease would have helped us to do so much more. We are saddened at all the strife this has caused. We are people of peace."

He indicated some of the lease money was earmarked to hire a youth minister, something the congregation has wanted to do for many years but cannot afford.

Calls by the Fairfield Citizen to the church on Thursday for additional comment were not returned.

On Sunday morning, dozens of people turned out to protest the proposed cell phone tower proposed behind the church on its property at 1089 Fairfield Woods Road.

Nonetheless, the church's council later Sunday voted to enter into a lease with AT&T so the wireless carrier can move ahead with plans to erect the tower.

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After protests, Fairfield Grace church pulls plug on plan for cell tower