ZBA Approves Telecom Tower

For South Main Street

By Andrew Gorosko

The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) has unanimously approved a proposal to construct a 150-foot-tall wireless telecommunications tower at 201 South Main Street.

In a 5-to-0 vote September 6, ZBA members decided that Omnipoint Communications Inc.’s proposal meets all applicable zoning regulations for such facilities, said Jean St Jean, the town’s zoning coordinator. The ZBA granted Omnipoint a special permit to build the tower.

The monopole tower will be a “co-location” tower, meaning that several telecommunications firms will mount their antennas on it, thus reducing the potential number of such towers in the area.

There was no public opposition to the tower construction proposal, Ms St Jean said.

ZBA members agreed that the site for the tower is a good place to build such a facility, she said.

 In July, the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) determined that the tower proposal would have “no significant impact” on the underlying Pootatuck Aquifer, the town’s sole source aquifer. P&Z members July 20 unanimously approved Omnipoint’s request for a special exception to the zoning regulations for aquifer regulations compliance, after reviewing an environmental study on the project prepared for the applicant.

Omnipoint of Bloomfield plans construction of the tower at the Georgia-Pacific Corporation’s lumber handling and storage facility. The 21-acre property, south of Ethan Allen Road, is adjacent to the town animal shelter and waste transfer station. The site is in an M-2 Industrial zone. The site is north of United Water’s wellhead into the Pootatuck Aquifer. The wellhead, which draws water from the Pootatuck Aquifer, is part of United Water’s public water supply system, which serves more than 1,100 local customers.

The P&Z action followed a June finding by the Conservation Commission that a tower construction project would have “no significant impact” on the aquifer. Because the site lies within the town’s Aquifer Protection District (APD), the application is subject to review by the Conservation Commission, acting in an advisory capacity to the P&Z.

Omnipoint plans to locate a sky-gray tower on a 240-square-foot site. Omnipoint will lease the site from Georgia-Pacific. A chain-link fence topped with barbed wire will enclose the tower. Several beige electronic equipment cabinets will be positioned nearby. The site will be landscaped with arborvitae bushes.

The lack of opposition to Omnipoint’s tower project comes in marked contrast to the controversy generated by a May proposal to build a 199-foot-tall telecommunications tower off Berkshire Road in Sandy Hook.

ZBA members unanimously rejected that request for zoning variances from SBA Communications, Inc. That tower construction proposal had drawn strong opposition from people living near the 249 Berkshire Road site proposed for the tower.

ZBA members agreed that SBA Communications had not demonstrated there was any hardship that would justify it being granted the several zoning variances it had requested for its tower. Some of the requested variances concerned the proposed tower’s proximity to residential buildings.

Newtown now has eight sites for wireless telecommunications.

The town’s telecommunications tower regulations are intended to encourage the location of commercial wireless telecommunications towers and antennas away from residential neighborhoods and to protect natural and scenic vistas. The rules are intended to minimize the adverse visual and operational effects of the facilities through careful design, siting, and screening, and hopes to protect historic aspects of the community from adverse effects.

The regulations encourage the joint use of new or existing towers and facilities. The rules are intended to reduce the number of towers and/or antennas needed in the future and to accommodate the need for such facilities, while regulating their location and number.