Date: Fri 06-Nov-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

ZBA-Nextel-tower

Full Text:

ZBA Approves Nextel Tower

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) has approved allowing Nextel Communications

to erect a 120-foot-tall monopole tower on a hill off Ferris Road for wireless

telecommunications in the Route 302 corridor.

ZBA members unanimously approved the tower placement November 4 but put

several conditions on the installation.

The ZBA is requiring that Nextel: install a tall chain link fence around the

installation; that the company submit a landscaping plan for the project; that

landscaping at the site be maintained, with plantings replaced as needed; that

if the tower becomes technologically obsolete it will be removed from the site

within 60 days; that Nextel reapply to the ZBA if another wireless

telecommunications company also wants to install antennas on the tower; and

that Nextel reapply to the ZBA for any physical changes it wants to make the

to tower installation.

Nextel plans to build the tower at 8 Ferris Road on land owned by Erich and

Patricia Gertsch. Ferris Road is a short dead end street off Scudder Road.

The Nextel tower proposal received little opposition from nearby property

owners when it was presented to the ZBA at an October 7 public hearing.

The only outright opposition came from Kathleen A. Ferris and Frederick A.

Ferris, Sr, of 24 Robin Hill Road, who also own some Ferris Road property

adjacent the site proposed for the telecommunications tower.

Mrs Ferris expressed concerns that their Ferris Road property would lose real

estate value due to its proximity to a tower.

The planned tower will be constructed in a wooded area near existing

80-foot-tall electric transmission towers. An equipment cabinet will be

positioned at the tower's base.

A 120-foot-tall tower is needed to allow wireless telephone signals to carry

across Newtown's hilly terrain, according to Nextel.

Nextel plans to install four 15-foot-long antennas on the tower to provide

wireless voice, data, text messaging, mobile paging, and dispatching services.

Nextel holds a federal license to provide wireless telecommunications in

Connecticut.

In January 1997, in the face of strong neighborhood opposition to its proposal

to build a 180-foot-tall monopole-style tower for digital cellular

telecommunications off Rock Ridge Road in Dodgingtown, Sprint Spectrum

withdrew its application that was pending before the ZBA. The Ferris Road site

is in the vicinity of the Rock Ridge Road site.