A measure that proponents said will allow neighborhoods to control the siting of cellular antennae, and opponents said will hamper cell-phone service, was introduced yesterday at the City Council.

Under the binding resolution introduced by a Queens Democrat, Peter Vallone Jr., hundreds of applications for cellular antennae each year would face increased scrutiny by community boards and the City Council.

“It forces cellular phone companies to put them in a respectable location. They have not been doing this before now. In fact, they have been arrogant about it,”

Council Member Vallone, speaking on a cell phone in his car, told The New York Sun. “This is something that will actually have an effect on where these towers are located, and I expect a huge battle.”

Cellular companies have argued that the more laborious permit process, similar to the current land-use approval process, would limit their ability to provide service.

“I absolutely believe it will interfere with New Yorkers’ demand for wireless services,” T-Mobile’s senior development manager for New York, Russ Tromberg, said. “I don’t think the City Council can keep up with the demand.”

Cellular antennae are the omnipresent 4-foot-high, white rectangular panels fixed to rooftops or stapled to the sides of buildings.Thousands are in place in the city, and hundreds of permits are sought each year by wireless-service providers seeking to expand or improve their coverage.

Currently, a company wishing to erect a cellular antenna requires only approval from the Department of Buildings of an application for an alteration permit, which is rarely denied.

The proposal would amend the city’s zoning regulations to require in residential districts a special permit from the City Planning Commission. Under the City Charter, that permit would require review by the local community board and would give the City Council the power to assert jurisdiction by calling the permit up for review and a vote.

The resolution does not need the mayor’s signature to take effect.

Mr. Vallone’s involvement in the issue of cellular antennas began more than two years ago, when the Astoria Neighborhood Coalition was formed in his district to encourage “a coherent and sensible policy not decided by the industry alone,” in the words of the group’s co-founder, Evie Hantzopoulos.

Neighbors wanted to have a hand in the siting process, saying they wished to mitigate the health effects of potentially cancer-causing radio-frequency waves. They cited a lack of certainty in existing scientific studies and more recent reports that suggest the use of caution.

“Every morning, residents are waking up to find a cell phone tower across the street from their bedroom, kids’ school, or place of worship,” Mr.Vallone said. “It is getting worse. About health concerns – we just don’t know about them – I don’t want this to be like asbestos and lead paint.”

The City Council recently passed unanimously another resolution sponsored by Mr. Vallone, which called for the city to conduct a study on the potential long-term health risks of placing cellular antennas in residential areas.

Mr. Tromberg of T-Mobile said that the antennas have no negative health effects and that communities have often dropped their opposition when presented with his company’s evidence.

“There is no study that shows any connection between wireless base stations and facilities and public health,” he said.

The federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits health issues from being used as a reason to reject an application for a cellular antenna.

Last year, Verizon spent $475 million in New York on its wireless network, adding roughly 75 cellular antennas, installing backup systems, and adding high-speed wireless infrastructure, according to a company spokesman, David Samburg. Since each wireless carrier employs different technology, each needs its own facilities, putting the number of annual antenna applications in the five boroughs well into the hundreds.

A Staten Island council member, James Oddo, who is the leader of the small Republican contingent, said he recognized that the resolution could bring a large influx of applications to the council, but supported the measure on the ground that cellular antennas constitute a common complaint in residential districts.

“I would much rather have the ability to have a say on it, and deal with the volume, than to not have a say on it at all,” Mr. Oddo said in an interview.

With so much money at stake for cellular companies, adoption of the resolution could bring increased lobbying of council members on controversial applications – and perhaps increased political contributions from telecommunications providers.

“The media have been focusing a lot on the phenomena of lobbying,” Mr. Oddo said. “If people want to succumb to lobbying efforts and sell out their communities, they will have to face the public at some point.”

The number of cell-phone users in the New York metropolitan area has soared from 3.2 million in 1996 to 9 million in 2004, according to T-Mobile.

Because of the lack of open space, wireless companies erect thousands of cellular antennas to provide service. Since the city’s landscape is constantly changing the companies must regularly alter their coverage and reconfigure their antennas, to permit a “direct line of sight” between the antenna and the phone.