A lawsuit filed by Chappaquiddick residents opposing a 115-foot AT&T cellular tower on Chappy was dismissed by Land Court judge Howard Speicher last week, concluding a complicated, yearslong legal battle.
A year following the review and approval of the cell tower by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in 2017, Chappy property owners Dana and Robert Strayton sued the regional planning agency, citing the tower’s potential adverse impacts to themselves and other abutters.
The AT&T tower proposal came after a temporary 84-foot tower (WISP tower) had been operational on mvWIFI property to provide Chappy residents with wireless, high-speed internet access.
The mvWIFI property, owned by Chappy resident Robert Fynbo, was later slated to become the home for the AT&T tower.
That case, which named the MVC, AT&T, mvWIFI, and Fynbo as defendants, underwent a lengthy bench trial in Dukes County Superior Court in 2020, ultimately resulting in a dismissal in 2021. A subsequent filing with the Massachusetts Court of Appeals affirmed that decision.
A second suit, filed concurrently by the Straytons against the town of Edgartown and its zoning board of appeals, among others, has also been dismissed, upholding the original Superior Court decision from 2021.
On Jan. 25, Judge Speicher ordered his judgment, which follows the latest complaint, this time against the Edgartown planning board for granting a special permit for the tower’s construction.
Per his written decision, Speicher decided “the court had adjudicated or dismissed all claims by all parties” involved in the case, and ruled that the court “dispose of this entire case.”