Stoddard floats plan for more, smaller facilities
By Sarah Trefethen
Sentinel Staff
STODDARD — The debate between residents and AT&T over how to deliver cell phone service to this hilly collection of hamlets rages on.
The town’s zoning board is considering an application from the wireless company to bring a single 150-foot cell tower to the top of Melville Hill, overlooking Granite Lake.
The board wants the company to consider using multiple smaller towers instead, but so far the company has not considered such a proposal.
Company representatives were not available for comment.
The proposed single tower is expected to fill in “significant portions” of the coverage gap along Route 9 in Stoddard, William Keyser, a spokesman for AT&T, told The Sentinel in December.
The proposal has met with resistance from residents of Stoddard and Nelson, who say the structure would affect property values by disrupting scenic views.
Residents have also become concerned with the extent of the coverage area the proposed single tower would provide.
According to the minutes of a meeting of the zoning board last week, the AT&T representative indicated the company’s primary motive in adding a tower in Stoddard would be to build another link in the service corridor along Route 9, connecting with the recently constructed faux pine tree cell tower in Roxbury.
Residents are concerned that the proposed tower would bring services to travelers on Route 9 and Route 123, but only a few people living in Stoddard and Nelson.
“There is a substantial difference of opinion about how AT&T and their representatives want to cover their, quote, ‘targeted area,’ and how we want it covered,” zoning board Vice Chairman Fred Ward said.
At last week’s zoning board meeting, Ward presented the representatives of AT&T with an outline of an alternate proposal for a collection of smaller towers.
But response from the company’s representatives was unenthusiastic, Ward said.
“We believe that at the minimum they have to give consideration to multiple towers,” he said. “That doesn’t say the board won’t necessarily approve a single tower.”
The Stoddard area is hilly and houses are spread out in clusters among the hills, making it harder to cover with cell service than an equivalent area of flat land, Ward said.
Cell phones operate at a high frequency that requires line-of-sight connection between phones and towers, according to Mark F. Hutchins, a Brattleboro-based radio frequency engineer who is consulting with the Stoddard zoning board on this application. Even trees interfere with the signal.
Distributed antenna systems, such as are found lining the tunnels under Boston Harbor, have also been used above ground in Andover, Mass., Hutchins said.
But these systems are expensive, and each tower covers a limited area to avoid interference, he said. They are cost effective for high-traffic areas but may not be affordable for the company in a low-traffic area, Hutchins said.
He also warned that distributed antenna systems in residential areas can be unsightly.
Hutchins is reviewing the radio frequency coverage maps of AT&T’s proposals for two alternate single-tower sites. He plans to present the results of the review, along with an assessment of the viability of a multi-site installation, when the hearing is continued Friday night.
Under federal law, the board is required to grant the company’s request for a special exception only if the company shows there is no reasonable alternative way to provide service in the target area, Hutchins said.
Ward said the board is working for a “win-win” situation, but pointed out that its decision faces potential legal challenges from both the company and tower opponents.
“We don’t want to go to court, but we might have to,” he said.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment will meet Friday at 7 p.m. at Stoddard Town Hall.
The town’s zoning board is considering an application from the wireless company to bring a single 150-foot cell tower to the top of Melville Hill, overlooking Granite Lake.
The board wants the company to consider using multiple smaller towers instead, but so far the company has not considered such a proposal.
Company representatives were not available for comment.
The proposed single tower is expected to fill in “significant portions” of the coverage gap along Route 9 in Stoddard, William Keyser, a spokesman for AT&T, told The Sentinel in December.
The proposal has met with resistance from residents of Stoddard and Nelson, who say the structure would affect property values by disrupting scenic views.
Residents have also become concerned with the extent of the coverage area the proposed single tower would provide.
According to the minutes of a meeting of the zoning board last week, the AT&T representative indicated the company’s primary motive in adding a tower in Stoddard would be to build another link in the service corridor along Route 9, connecting with the recently constructed faux pine tree cell tower in Roxbury.
Residents are concerned that the proposed tower would bring services to travelers on Route 9 and Route 123, but only a few people living in Stoddard and Nelson.
“There is a substantial difference of opinion about how AT&T and their representatives want to cover their, quote, ‘targeted area,’ and how we want it covered,” zoning board Vice Chairman Fred Ward said.
At last week’s zoning board meeting, Ward presented the representatives of AT&T with an outline of an alternate proposal for a collection of smaller towers.
But response from the company’s representatives was unenthusiastic, Ward said.
“We believe that at the minimum they have to give consideration to multiple towers,” he said. “That doesn’t say the board won’t necessarily approve a single tower.”
The Stoddard area is hilly and houses are spread out in clusters among the hills, making it harder to cover with cell service than an equivalent area of flat land, Ward said.
Cell phones operate at a high frequency that requires line-of-sight connection between phones and towers, according to Mark F. Hutchins, a Brattleboro-based radio frequency engineer who is consulting with the Stoddard zoning board on this application. Even trees interfere with the signal.
Distributed antenna systems, such as are found lining the tunnels under Boston Harbor, have also been used above ground in Andover, Mass., Hutchins said.
But these systems are expensive, and each tower covers a limited area to avoid interference, he said. They are cost effective for high-traffic areas but may not be affordable for the company in a low-traffic area, Hutchins said.
He also warned that distributed antenna systems in residential areas can be unsightly.
Hutchins is reviewing the radio frequency coverage maps of AT&T’s proposals for two alternate single-tower sites. He plans to present the results of the review, along with an assessment of the viability of a multi-site installation, when the hearing is continued Friday night.
Under federal law, the board is required to grant the company’s request for a special exception only if the company shows there is no reasonable alternative way to provide service in the target area, Hutchins said.
Ward said the board is working for a “win-win” situation, but pointed out that its decision faces potential legal challenges from both the company and tower opponents.
“We don’t want to go to court, but we might have to,” he said.
The Zoning Board of Adjustment will meet Friday at 7 p.m. at Stoddard Town Hall.
No comments:
Post a Comment