A proposed 275-foot wireless tower on the border of Saint Joseph County and Michigan is drawing opposition from neighbors and a county council member. Unlike typical cell towers, this one is designed to speed up billion-dollar financial trades by transmitting data between Chicago and New York, a purpose that some say offers little-to-no benefit to the local community.
John Szobocsan lives directly across the street from where the tower would be built. He says it primarily connects financial markets between Chicago and New York, with no economic interest in Saint Joseph County or even Indiana. “It connects the financial markets between Chicago and New York. There’s no economic interest for any of these firms in Saint Joseph County and even the state of Indiana,” Szobocsan says.
High-frequency trading depends on microwave networks like this one to send data in milliseconds, giving firms a competitive edge. A study from the University of California Santa Cruz and Stanford University tracks how these connections have cut communication time over the past decade.
The tower would sit among several residential neighborhoods, including Bradford Shores and Ashford Hills. Amy Drake, who represents Clay Township on the county council, says the homes nearby are worried the tower will hurt their property values. “My main concern is the impact on property values...it would be going into a neighborhood area where there’s lots of houses that are worried about their property values,” Drake says.
The developers are asking for special permission to build the tower taller than the usual 200-foot limit and to place it in a residential zone, a move that typically requires extra approval.
Neighbors also worry about the tower’s FAA-required lights and security features. Andrew Sulen Jr., who lives adjacent to the site, says the strobe light will shine through the nine windows on the south side of his home 24 hours a day, year-round. “24 hours a day, 365 days a year, all day long, that strobe light will be coming through the nine windows on the south side of my home,” Sulen says. He also says the security fence topped with barbed wire will be an eyesore and that the strobe lights could have health effects, including triggering migraines, fatigue, and sleeplessness.
Drake says the tower mostly benefits private companies involved in financial trading, not the community at large. “Its primary purpose is to serve a public or a private interest, not a public interest. And that’s our issue here. We don’t see it giving a community benefit,” she says. The developers claim the tower could also be used by cell carriers and emergency services, but Drake points to a nearby existing tower that already provides those functions.
Approval for the tower still has several steps ahead, including review by the Area Board of Zoning Appeals and the county council. The first hearing is coming soon, and many residents plan to voice their opposition.
Drake sums up the concerns this way: “It not only hurts the homeowners, but it also hurts the county. So it doesn’t serve the homeowner, it doesn’t serve the county. We don’t think it serves the public. We just see it as zero all the way around.”
For now, residents like Szobocsan and Sulen are waiting to see how the tower will affect their neighborhoods, while the company says it’s part of a system meant to improve communication speeds across long distances. Szobocsan says, “There’s already the hardware in place. So this is just an additional system to help private firms trade on their own books so they can enrich themselves at the expense of everybody else.” Sulen adds, “This was to be my retirement home. Instead of having a beautiful piece of property and a home that I love so much, it has now been compromised by hedge funds.”
WVPE reached out to McKay Brothers for comment, but has not received a response.
