Steel 'Monstrosity' In Tenleytown To Be Dismantled

District to Pay Builder $350,000, Ending 5-Year Fight Over Tower

For more than five years, the people of Tenleytown fought the tower.

They prodded the District to block it when it was partially built, but for the next half-decade it loomed over the shops and restaurants along Wisconsin Avenue NW -- a 281-foot steel eyesore.

Yesterday, the people of Tenleytown won the battle.

In a legal settlement applauded by residents, the District has agreed to pay American Tower Inc. $350,000 to demolish the hulking structure.

"Every day, walking by was a constant reminder that we had to see to it that this was dismantled and eradicated from view," said Timothy Cooper, president of the Stop the Tower Coalition and a neighborhood resident.

"Now that this will happen, we can all be grateful," he said.

Mary Abate, a trial lawyer who lives a half-mile from the site, described the tower as "overpowering and menacing" and said it seemed out of place in a neighborhood of low-rise buildings, restaurants and two public schools.

"I am elated," she said.

American Tower, which started construction in 2000, has until March 26 to apply for demolition permits, under the terms of the settlement, which was reached Thursday and announced by the city yesterday.

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), in a statement, said he has told his staff to help the Boston company obtain the permits so the demolition "can proceed quickly."

"I am pleased that this protracted dispute has been settled -- I know that many Tenleytown residents have been waiting for years for a resolution to this case," Williams said.

Lori Philbin, an American Tower spokeswoman, did not return calls. And Robert Cave, a lawyer representing the company in the dispute, declined to comment.