Prime Co Personal Communications, Limited Partnership v. City Of Mequon

352 F.3d 1147 (2003)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

P was having trouble providing cellphone service along a stretch of a busy street called Mequon Road. A church in an area zoned institutional, though largely residential, was willing to allow an antenna to be built in its backyard. The antenna would be 70 feet high and 9.5 inches in diameter. To reduce its unsightliness, it would be disguised as a flagpole. The planning commission hired a consulting firm to analyze the issue of availability of service. The firm reported that the antenna would increase P's coverage of the area along Mequon Road from 37 percent of the area to 95 percent. A high school and a country club, both of which the planning commissioners preferred to the church's backyard, were analyzed but were adjudged unsuitable in that coverage would only get to 72 percent. D denied the application. P took an appeal with D's board of appeals and turned down again, P took suit in federal court. The court granted summary judgment to P and D appealed.