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Date: 1/26/2021
SOUTHWICK – After initially opening a public hearing for a proposed Verizon cell tower off of Liberty Lane back in September followed by months of debate, the Southwick Planning Board denied the application at its Jan. 19 meeting.
To start the conversation, Vice Chair Marcus Phelps, who once again took over the hearing for chair Michael Doherty, recapped the information the board had received from residents and Verizon throughout the hearing process.
“The proposed wireless communication facility that we have under consideration here needs to be looked at in the context of the benefits and costs to the whole community,” he said. “This would include the need to improve cell phone coverage. The level of visual impact, which, to the best I could determine, based on the balloon float, the tower would be seasonably visible from 10 residential properties. The third consideration is the impact on the market value of homes in the vicinity.”
As part of the land lease agreement with Verizon, Phelps said the town would be receiving three different forms of income.
“Within that document, you can see there are three forms of income that would be accrued to the town if the facility is built. This would be through rental, also a certain percentage of the gross sales from other companies that may co-locate on the tower, and finally tax revenue that would come to the town,” he said.
Board member Richard Utzinger said he was not sure the cell tower would be safe and healthy for residents.
“If you go into the mission of the Planning Board, it says, ‘To allow the residents to live in a safe and healthy environment.’ I don’t believe that this situation includes that,” he said.
By approving the application, Utzinger said the board may not be doing the job they were voted in to do.
“As a Planning Board, we are basically an employee for the town of Southwick, and we work for the people that live there. I think we need to take into consideration the feeling of the people in the area, there are a lot of negatives and no positives. They vote us into do what’s right for the town, and if we allow this tower, we won’t be doing what they are expecting us to do,” he said.
Board member Jessica Thornton said that she believed more than 10 homes would be visually impacted by the tower.
“I would challenge the idea that once finished, the facility will only be visible to 10 residences. A balloon that was a third of the size of the top of tower without the additional dimensions and inclusion of the tower, nor the deforestation that is planned to occur, that you could say you would only see it from 10 residential locations,” she said.
She added that she was concerned about which evidence in regard to property values would be considered more heavily in the decision.
“I’m also still concerned about what we’re going to consider more heavily weighted in our evidence when it comes to property value issues. We have a paid appraisal stating there will be no diminution of market value, absolutely no adverse financial effect. But we heard other testimony stating that there would be from realtors in the business of selling homes,” she said.
One of the concerns board member Dave Spina said he had over the tower was if Verizon would be able to extend it above what the bylaw approves once it was in place.
“The only thing still weighing on my mind is the potential extension the tower afterwards in accordance with federal law and whether we have to approve it. Based on my math they would be able to increase the height past what is allowable by the bylaw. My interpretation is that would imply we would not be able to deny a tower that violated the bylaws,” he said.
With a four to one vote, the board denied the application.
After denying the application, Town Planner Alan Slessler said the board members that voted to deny the application must provide sufficient evidence in writing for the denial to stand.
“I know Verizon is going to be a stickler on our denial, we’re going to need hard facts taken out of our Chapter 185. We can’t really free board it, they are going to be particular about why it was denied. If you have a weak decision, they will tear it apart. You have to look at the bylaw and what you can use as evidence,” he said.
The Planning Board next meets on Feb. 9.