Cell Tower Proposal Inches Closer To A Decision
Doug La Rocque
This cell tower proposal has certainly not gone forward in leaps and bounds, but one tiny step at a time.
First proposed in May of 2019 as a 150 foot tower on lands at the corner of Creek Road and Menemsha Lane, it has morphed instead into a proposed 85 foot monopine tower, made to look like a pine tree to disguise and cut down on the visibility from neighboring homes.
It was many of those neighbors who vehemently opposed the project at a January public hearing, that started the Brunswick Planning Board looking at modifications to the original proposal. After 10 months of give and take between the Board and Blue Sky Towers, which does business as Verizon Wireless, representatives of Verizon appeared before the December 3 Board meeting to review and urge the planners to accept its State Environment Quality Review Act (SEQRA) report. There are two types of SEQRA actions, a so-called “short form” used for smaller projects, such a minor subdivision, and the much more detailed “long form,” needed for projects of this magnitude. And as is often said, it is in these details where the devil lies.
Consulting Engineer Ron Laberge went through the SEQRA form step by step.
One item that drew comment from the Board was the noise that would be produced by the standby generators, either during a power outage or the weekly testing. Mr. Laberge said the noise would be measured at about 53 decibels, which he labeled as not significant. Board Chair Russ Oster asked, since there would be two generators, one for Verizon and one for AT&T, which is piggybacking on the tower, if the testing routine could not be synchronized, so as to minimize any inconvenience to the neighbors. Mr. Laberge felt that could be worked out.
Another hangup involved detrimental health impacts created by cell towers. It is Verizon’s contention that the site would not impose any health concerns. Planning Board Attorney Andy Gilchrist asked that the actual language of any studies they used to reach this conclusion be part of the SEQRA document. The planners decided that these additions and changes could not properly become part of the document at this meeting, and decided to table any SEQRA determination until its next gathering.
A determination by the Planning Board that there is no significant impact on the environment (sometimes referred to negative declaration or “neg dec”) must be made before the Zoning Board of Appeals can consider an area variance for the project. Verizon must have that in hand as well, before the Planning Board can act on the Special Use Permit and Site Plan application.
These steps assure that any final board decision is still many weeks away.
The Long and Short Of It
As with a previous meeting, the agenda was very lengthy, but several of the projects were postponed. One person was heard to say it was “deja vu all over again” referring to a famous quote from New York Yankee great Yogi Berra.
One new item on the agenda was a proposed solar facility for Laughing Earth Farms on Route 2. The site would only be used to power their buildings and is only 24 kilowatts in size. The builder, SunComman also said it will not be very visible from the road. The proposal still faces a public hearing before the Board can act.
All other business involved minor, private projects.