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Date: 11/17/2020
SOUTHWICK – During its Nov. 10 meeting, the Southwick Planning Board once again continued the public hearing over a proposed Verizon cell tower off Liberty Lane.
As part of the Verizon presentation, Jay Latorre, an engineer with Verizon, discussed why Suffield, CT, would not be a suitable site for the tower and said it could introduce problems because of the proximity to another tower in Suffield.
“The siting of wireless communications facilities needs to be done in such a way that you are substantially eliminating coverage gaps, you are substantially improving areas where there is insufficient service, and you are avoiding an unnecessary overlap that can result in a reduction in quality of service,” he said.
Planning Board member Jessica Thornton said that one of her concerns was how the tower would affect property values in the area.
“I went myself and spoke with some local realtors and all of them came up with the same answer being that while the cell phone tower doesn’t always directly affect the market it value when it is first put on the market, it limits the buyer pool. The second part of that is once you limit that buyer pool, you are creating a lengthier on-market timeframe that leads to a reduction in sale price,” she said.
After residents voiced their complaints at each previous hearing, several of them grouped together to create a PowerPoint presentation about their concerns.
One of the presenters, Jeff King, said he spoke with an appraiser from Commonwealth Appraisals who explained the tower would put additional stress on selling homes in the area.
“In the letter it basically says that it will take a lot more work regarding the banks and the appraisers to sell a house when there is a cell phone tower in the neighborhood. He said an appraisal today would be $500 but could be double or more with a tower. It adds more stress to buyers, sellers, real estate agents and the banks,” he said.
Cori Rolland, another presenter, expressed some of her health concerns with the tower during the resident presentation after receiving a letter from Dr. David Carpenter, MD, and Dean of the University of Albany School of Public Health.
“In the letter he said cell towers risk several different and serious diseases for those who live nearby; including cancers, altered hormones, and electro hypersensitivity which often affects people including children in the form of chronic headaches and fatigue,” she said.
During the hearing, Southwick Police Officer Marc Siegel said the new cell tower could be beneficial for law enforcement.
“The cell phone tower could be very good for town police and fire communications. There are some dead spots in town, currently our communications are on telephone poles. If Verizon works with us to put our communications equipment up on their pole, that would increase our coverage too,” he said.
At this point, Police Chief Kevin Bishop said that no deal was in place to put the equipment up on the tower were it to be approved.
One of the concerns Planning Board Chair Michael Doherty said he had for the tower was why Verizon was not looking into using smaller equipment near Foster Road to address service gaps instead of a full tower.
“I’m not sure based on what you submitted so far those small cells wouldn’t work on Foster Road to supplement that over there. To me that seems like a viable alternative and I’m simply not there that we can put it there,” he said.
To close the hearing for the evening, the board and representatives from Verizon agreed to tentatively schedule two balloon tests for the tower, with the final dates to be set at the next meeting.
Doherty said the biggest concern coming out of the Nov. 10 hearing was the lack of alternative sites and agreed with concerns raised by residents.
“To me the issue is you have a site where there is significant residential impact, the problem is under federal law, if there is a coverage gap, they have the right to fill that. The issue right now is alternate sites and whether those reasonably exist. The residents do not want it, and there is an impact, and I don’t disagree with that. The question is, where is the alternative,” he said.
During the meeting, the board also approved an updated site plan to remove parking spaces and add more space for takeout at the McDonald’s located at 214 College Hwy.
The Southwick Planning Board next meets on Dec. 1.