Cell tower plan gets bad reception

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http://nsnlb.us.publicus.com/apps/pb...4006/-1/nashua

Cell tower plan gets bad reception

By TOM WEST
Telegraph Correspondent

NASHUA – Whether the city will approve a telecommunications cell tower proposed by T-Mobile remains up in the air.

On Tuesday, the zoning board of adjustment took more than two hours of testimony on a cell tower that would be on common land within the Coburn Woods condominium development in northwest Nashua, mostly from 15 opponents of project.

Then the board said it needed more time to digest the reams of documents presented as evidence by Thomas Hildreth, a lawyer for T-Mobile.

The board said it would make a decision at the end of its next meeting Dec. 12.
“This issue is too important to render a decision tonight,” said Vice-Chairman Jack Currier.

According to Hildreth, T-Mobile has agreed to reduce the height of the tower from 112 feet to 105 feet, and will place antennas inside the structure so they won’t be visible. Originally, the cell phone carrier planned a 150-foot tower.

The monopole structure will be designed as a “slick stick’’ to make it as unobtrusive as possible and T-Mobile has agreed to move it farther away from Lutheran Drive, where residents seem to be universally opposed to it, Hildreth said.

But many Coburn Woods residents said they don’t want it either. They told the panel while the condo association’s board of directors endorsed the project by a narrow 3-2 vote, a vast majority of people who live in the development want nothing to do with it.

The residents said they were unimpressed by a balloon test conducted by T-Mobile a few weeks ago. A balloon was floated 112 feet in the air to determine whether the tower could be seen from various vantage points, but residents said the test was inconclusive because of a strong wind that day.

“I’m just shocked they’d want to put something like this up on that space,” said Susan Pothier, who lives in one of the condos. “The residents who live there don’t want it.”

She and others said the tower would devalue their properties, but Hildreth said it wouldn’t and submitted letters from several appraisers as evidence.

“This is the most benign structure I can offer,” he said, adding that the tower would be painted to blend in with surrounding trees.

But David Holden said his family owns the property and leases it to the Coburn Woods condo association. The condo development was the built in early 1970s, he said, and it was the first of its kind in the city.

The common land within development, where the tower would be built, “was reserved as open space and there was never any intention to do anything with this common land,” Holden said. “I find it kind of funny that T-Mobile never contacted Holden Realty, which is the landowner.”

Developer John Stabile built the adjacent homes on Lutheran Drive and his lawyer, Paul DeCarolis said the project was entirely out of character with the neighborhood.
Others, such as resident David Kosofsky, said the structure would create a industrial presence in the R-18 residential zone and the granting of special exception T-Mobile is seeking from the zoning would set a dangerous precedent.
“We don’t want cell towers springing up in other beautiful neighborhoods in our city,” he said.

Ward 1 Alderman Mark Cookson, who represents the neighborhood, said he opposed the project, as did Alderman-at-Large Jim Tollner, who lives in the area.
“I haven’t met a resident yet who is in favor of a cell tower,” Tollner said.

But just everybody in the country uses a cell phone, Hildreth said, adding that there are 226 million subscribers to wireless services nationally. If people want cell phones, cell towers have to be built, he said.

Tuesday marked the second time the board has taken testimony in the case. At the December meeting of the panel, the public won’t be allowed to speak. Members will discuss the evidence among themselves, then vote on the proposal, chairman Sean Duffy said