AT&T Bullies Dearborn Business Owner
Telecom Giant Wants $200,000 to Relocate Video Box
Over the years, Tarick Seifeddine and his father Adel have patiently waited to get approvals from the city of Dearborn to transform a long-vacant service station at the corner of Military and Cherry Hill into something more than the current eyesore that it is.
An artist rendering of the proposed new building at Military and Cherry Hill.
It has been a sometimes arduous process but the family now has the needed approvals from the city (and residents) to construct a very tasteful looking office building.
But their dream building could be delayed, due in no small part to telecom giant and bully AT&T.
With no regard for residents or business owners, AT&T is installing ugly, refrigerator-sized new video boxes (known as U-verse boxes) throughout Dearborn on lawns, easements and curbs as it races to upgrade its services to offer video for the first time.
In the case of Seifeddine, the boxes were simply plopped right smack in the middle of his planned parking lot driveway entrance of the family’s new building, a design already approved by the city.
AT&T plopped its large boxes along the sidewalk of Cherry Hill, right in the middle of planned driveway. AT&T says it will cost as much as $200,000 to move them less than 10 feet.
Seifeddine has asked AT&T to move one of the boxes just less than 10 feet so he can construct his driveway. AT&T said unless Seifeddine is willing to pay between $150,000 and $200,000 for the move, the box isn’t budging.
Cleverly, AT&T installed its tan-colored monster boxes less than four inches off of Seifeddine’s property line, so technically the boxes are on a city easement. But had AT&T contacted Seifeddine prior to installing their boxes, the two could have worked out a better location. AT&T also could have installed the boxes underground but chose above ground as a cost save and because no one from AT&T has to live near these noisy eyesores.
“We were never contacted about the installation,” Seifeddine said. “We could have tucked the boxes on another part of the property and then hidden them with some nice landscaping.”
Seifeddine said demolition of the current vacant building could begin in less than a month. But what happens after that really hinges on what AT&T decides to do. The family has contacted Dearborn Mayor John B. O’Reilly, Jr., who told Seifeddine he will contact AT&T to see if this is something that can be resolved.
This isn’t the first time AT&T has pulled such a stunt. All across America, AT&T is installing these unsightly boxes and angering, residents, city officials and businesses along the way. A few years ago in Geneva, Ill., city officials passed a 180-day moratorium that effectively stopped installations of AT&T’s boxy cabinets. AT&T sued Geneva and six other Illinois municipalities for restricting its plans, claiming it had the right to use public rights of way for its telecom network.
In Tulsa, an AT&T employee is even leading protests against the above-ground boxes, rightly arguing that these large, ugly boxes lower the aesthetic appeal of a neighborhood.
The boxes can be dangerous, too, as some have caught fire and even exploded, according to some news accounts. AT&T has said it has fixed those earlier problems.
If you’re a homeowner and wondering whether a box will appear in front of your home or in your yard, Dearborn city officials should be able to provide a map of all box locations. It’s worth looking into because if you don’t have one now that doesn’t mean you are in the clear.
July 29th, 2009 at 7:42 am
How does this picture even represent the actual site? This rendition would indicate the building sits where the boxes are, not where the driveway is planned according to the blog. Where is the real location of the building on the site???
July 29th, 2009 at 8:17 am
This site has sat vacant for decades, unkept, occupied by various lawn services without approval, no response to numberous citations, eventually ignored by the building inspectors because of the owners connection with the dead mayor and joe beydoun and now he’s a “Victim”? God help U.S.!
July 29th, 2009 at 9:52 am
It took me a few minutes to orient the two views since all the SketchUp rendering shows is a generic building on a generic plot of land apparently in the middle of some vast open farm field. Since there’s no housing or any true site conditions it’s hard to compare what’s going on here. However, I don’t think they match.
The photo is from behind the site, on Cherry Hill. If the rendering is the same the driveway would be right next to the last home on Cherry Hill because that’s where the boxes sit. The front of the building, as rendered, would then face the homes rather than Cherry Hill or Military. It seems hard to believe the residents of that neighborhood would allow the primary access to the building to be right next to a residential property.
However, the angles don’t match up and it seems like the rendering has the front of the building facing Military with the driveway off Cherry Hill (where it currently is) and parking between the front of the building and Military. If that’s the case then the boxes would be along side the building and not in conflict with the driveway. Maybe the boxes will be inches from the building if it’s built to the property line but I don’t see a driveway conflict here.
I think site plans would have to be shown rather than that generic SketchUp model to really understand what’s going on.
July 29th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Well Dee, I wouldn’t say the picture is in accurate.
From the rendering we don’t know if the street we are looking at is Cherry Hill or Military.
If the street we see is Cherry Hill, then the driveway could be about where the boxes are located, or perhaps in the vicinity of where the three people on the sidewalk are standing.
But if the street is Military, then the building is blocking our view of the boxes located close to Cherry Hill. Perhaps there is a second driveway entrance on Cherry Hill, but we can’t see that from this rendering. See the red car peeking around the corner of the building? Maybe it just entered the lot from Cherry Hill.
Hope this helps you put it in perpective. Anything will be better
July 29th, 2009 at 1:03 pm
Therefore, the front of the building faces the rear of the building on Long Blvd. The back of the building will be a an attractive rear of a building along the sidewalk on Cherry Hill?? What happened to the 40 foot setback from the front edge of the sidewalks???? Or is this another variationof the zoning laws????
July 29th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
shouldn’t they mimic the development along michigan ave. and keep it vacant after construction??
July 29th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Sure the building could face Long. All four sides of the building could look very nice; look at Dr. Rahamut’s place. Seifeddene should build his driveway as planned, just with a curve in it. Lay the cement right up along the easement line. When the first customer or delivery truck comes along and knocks the box off its foundation, for want of just a few inches, then at&t will move it. Problem solved.
July 29th, 2009 at 8:38 pm
There is only one position that drawing can be placed on that corner, providing that is a white privacy wall in the back and side of the building.
You would enter the driveway off Cherry Hill. The building itself would be facing west and Military. If you where taking a picture of that corner from the drawings angle, you would be standing in the intersection of Military and Cherry Hill facing south/east with the camera. There should also be homes placed behind and on the far side of the building in the drawing. And mine would be one of them!
August 1st, 2009 at 10:11 am
I think those boxes would block access to a fire-lane behind the proposed building, see where the 3 pedestrians are drawn on the sidewalk? The boxes I think are just beyond them out of the frame. The boxes would not block not the drive to the front yard parking shown in the sketchup.
Just how long ago were those boxes installed? I think they’ve been there awhile. Anyone know when the site plan for this proposed office building was approved? Those boxes are visible on the current googlemaps, and they don’t take aerial photos every day. Usually there is a time limit from the date of site plan approval that construction must commence, or the site plan approval becomes void. In the normal world, anyway-HA.
According to the city’s current zoning map published on February 2, 09: http://www.cityofdearborn.org/departments/economicdev/zoningmap.pdf
the S.E. corner of Cherry Hill and Military is zoned “RA”, which is residential. Office use is not even allowed. And the proposed parking lot in the required front yard setback-? This is wrong on so many levels. And why is the mayor even involved at this point? Whining on behalf of a private party to a utility company who is completely within the law exercising their easement rights? Where is his dignity? He has a whole staff (city planner and plan commission) and separate departments (ECD and Legal) to handle site plan and development issues with private citizens. Doesnt he trust his staff of trained professionals?
I’d like to see a copy of this allegedly APPROVED site plan, and the date it was approved, along with the relevant Plan Commission and ZBA meeting minutes, not a sketchup rendering. Property owner needs to stop whining, play by the rules, suck it up and submit another site plan, and this time actually READ the zoning ordinance. BTW, anybody know the name of the development co. who did the site plan?
August 7th, 2009 at 7:38 pm
I’ve seen them put big utility boxes in all sorts of weird places.
Between the in and out driveways of a parking lot / driveway of an Elementary school is my favorite. These boxes are bigger than the kids. How are people supposed to see around them? Some of the locations are just against common sense.
But if they asked everyone where to put them, they’d be tied up in discussion forever. I mean who really wants one of these on or near their property. And they do have the legal right…
August 8th, 2009 at 11:02 am
UGLY UGLY UGLY!
AT&T wanted to save money by putting them upground instead of burying them. It’s all about what the company wants and not it’s customers! One reason why I switched to Comcast for my telephone and internet needs.
I would even say, I would commendand applaud the guy who would accidently take a bulldozer and hit some of the AT&T boxes.
AT&T get your act together!
It ruins neighborhoods and brings it down with kids making graffiti marks on some.