Hearing Slated On

New Telecom Tower Rules

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) is proposing a set of zoning rules to regulate the location of wireless telecommunication towers, antennas and electronics buildings.

 The proposed regulations are scheduled for a public hearing when the P&Z meets November 18 at the town land use office at Canaan House at Fairfield Hills. A P&Z business meeting is scheduled for 7:30 pm. Public hearings start at 8 pm.

The P&Z proposes adding seven pages of new rules on “wireless telecommunication facilities” to its zoning regulations. Such facilities are used for cellular telephony, electronic paging, and wireless Internet access, among other uses.

In proposing the new rules, the P&Z is seeking to encourage the location of telecommunications facilities away from residential neighborhoods; to protect natural and scenic vistas; to encourage the placement of telecommunications facilities on non-residential buildings and structures, and to encourage the joint use of new or existing towers.

Through the proposed regulations, the P&Z also is seeking to minimize the adverse visual and operational effects through careful facility design siting and screening; to protect historic areas from adverse effects, and to reduce the number of towers and antennas which will be needed in the future.

In 1803 the townspeople of Newtown voted $100 to purchase a fire engine. Two months later that vote was recinded, however, and instead Elijah Nichols was appointed “chimney viewer.”