Date: Fri 25-Sep-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

P&Z-Nextel-Tower

Full Text:

Nextel Proposes A Tower For Ferris Road

BY ANDREW GOROSKO

Nextel Communications is seeking Zoning Board of Appeals approval to construct

a 120-foot tall monopole style tower off Ferris Road to provide wireless

telecommunications for its customers.

The board has scheduled a public hearing on the request for 8 pm, October 7,

at Canaan House, Fairfield Hills.

Nextel wants 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.

Under the terms of a lease agreement approved April 14, Erich and Patricia

Gertsch of 8 Ferris Road granted Nextel the authority to apply to build a

tower on their property behind their home. Nextel wants to use 2,500 square

feet of land for the construction of a tower and installation of related

electronics equipment. Ferris Road is a short dead-end street off Scudder

Road.

Nextel needs both a special permit and a zoning variance to build a tower more

than 30 feet tall in an R-1 zone. Four properties are adjacent to the Gertsch

property. There are 36 properties within 500 feet of the site.

The site is adjacent to an area which has electrical high-tension transmission

lines and tall trees, according to Nextel. The telecommunications tower would

be visually screened from a majority of the neighboring property owners due to

its location, it states.

The presence of a tower off Ferris Road would be the least visible alternative

for providing a telecommunications link in that geographic area, according to

Nextel. Only the top of the tower would be visible to some neighbors, it

states.

"Any potential impact on the community created by the proposal, if any, will

be minimal and of no significant adverse effect," the company contends.

Nextel has investigated whether existing towers and structures in the area

would be suitable for antenna placements, but found no such locations and thus

is proposing new tower construction, according to the company.

Undeveloped sites in industrial zones were considered for tower construction,

but none of the locations are geographically suitable for providing

telecommunications in the Route 302 corridor, according to Nextel.

An equipment shelter adjacent to the proposed tower would have earthen

coloration to blend into the background, according to Nextel.

In its application Nextel provides the ZBA with "photographic simulations" of

what the tower would look like from various locations.

Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) members are considering proposed rules

that would regulate the installation of wireless telecommunications towers and

antennas. Although such regulations would be enacted by the P&Z, they would be

administered by the Zoning Board of Appeals. The proposed regulations will be

the subject of a P&Z public hearing sometime this fall.

Although the Nextel application will not be subject to any P&Z rules on towers

and antennas, future applications would be subject to such rules once they are

enacted.

The proposed zoning rules acknowledge that the federal Telecommunications

Reform Act of 1996 allows the local installation of telecommunications

facilities, but seeks to regulate their placement to minimize disruptions to

the community.

According to a draft version of the zoning regulations, the rules would be

used to: encourage the placement of telecommunication facilities away from

residential neighborhoods; protect scenic and natural vistas; place facilities

on existing non-residential buildings and structures; minimize the visibility

of facilities through careful design, siting and screening; avoid adversely

affecting historic features; and reduce the number of antennas and/or towers

needed in the future.

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 which was pending before the Zoning Board of Appeals.

The Ferris Road site is in the vicinity of the Rock Ridge Road site.

In 1997, Sprint Spectrum built a 150-foot tall steel, monopole style tower off

South Main Street to hold a nine-antenna array for digital cellular

communications. The free standing tower is in an M-5 industrial zone on the

west side of South Main Street, south of Bear Hills Road, just north of the

Monroe town line. After the ZBA approved the construction of the South Main

Street tower, an adjacent South Main Street property owner sued the ZBA and

Sprint over the approval. That lawsuit was later settled out of court.

In February 1997, the Connecticut Siting Council unanimously approved a

request from Sprint to install a digital cellular telecommunications antenna

array on an existing antenna tower at Northeast Utilities' Newtown Service

Center on Barnabas Road in the Hawleyville industrial area.

The first wireless tower in town was built alongside Exit 11 of Interstate-84

in Sandy Hook. It is a Bell Atlantic facility.