Pensacola residents continue fight against 5G technology

PENSACOLA, Fla. (WEAR) – The battle against 5G is still waging in Pensacola, over a year after residents were first told it was coming.

East Hill residents are not giving up on their fight to to keep this technology out of their backyards.

"The question for elected officials is are you going to listen to the voice of your constituents or 5G lobbyists," said resident John Herron.

Herron has reached out to leaders at the city and state level, but nothing has been done to turnover the approval of a 5G permit in his neighborhood.

Now he's taking this fight directly to the federal government by filing a petition with the Federal Communications Commission.

"The notion that we're going full speed ahead with 5G in residential neighborhoods, 20 sometimes 10 feet from people's homes, from your next door neighbor's daughter's bedroom window - I think that's irresponsible," Herron said, Saturday.

We first reported on these 5G small cell antennas coming to Pensacola last August.

This was after Governor DeSantis signed a bill taking away control from local governments to have much of a say in their installation. Now, over 365 days later, Mayor Grover Robinson tells Channel 3 News, 70 permits have been approved in city limits.

"The State of Florida made it very clear that we have very few things we can do," Robinson said. "We try to do those things, but we can not deny. Deny is not an option we have."

Options the City of Pensacola does have is to suggest the antenna be collocated - put on existing infrastructure. The city can also ask for aesthetics to be taken into consideration.

"With any technology there seems to be benefits and there seems to be problems. I think anytime this happens, you want to work in your community to get as much of the benefit and as little of the problem as possible," Robinson said when asked if 5G was good for Pensacola.

With more 5G antennas going up in Northwest Florida, more homeowners are taking notice.

Abbey Rodamaker became concerned after noticing 5G antennas on a water tower in Santa Rosa County -- nearly 800 feet from her daughter's elementary school.

"We were never informed it was going up," Rodamaker said. "I would assume most teachers who spend six to seven hours, five days a week all year long at the school have no idea it's there and I'd assume the people getting water from there don't know either."

Rodamaker hopes more residents will become educated on the risks of living in close proximity to 5G technology.

Last year, a California elementary school made national headlines after parents questioned whether a childhood cancer cluster could be linked to a Sprint cellphone tower.