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004 -slY · 6 HENRY STREET BEACON, NY 12508 "C,1i.k"_""",,,-,,_ BEACON FAMILY HEALTH PAUL C. GARELL, M.D. Telephone (914) 831-0470 Fax (914) 831-0306 RECEIVED July 25, 1997 JUL 28 1997 ELAINE S rOWN NOWOE CLE'RI{ 1-1 Town Board Wappingers ' 'I . New York 12590 Dear Board Members: This article recently appeared in the Hudson Valley Magazine. It is being sent to you as an informational package to acquaint you with the problem of cell towers in the Hudson Valley and how other towns in the valley are handling this problem. A cell tower recently appeared in my back yard. It had no authorization from the zoning officer, the Town Planning Board or any other town body. According to Mr. Dan Close, the zoning officer, no permit was sought and no permit was issued for this construction. This construction occured in a residential R-80 zone. I am calling on the Town of Wappingers Board to investigate this non-compliance with town ordinances and develop a policy to restrict this type of construction to industrial or business zones. Sincerely, (J ~ c.~ fl'-r) . Paul C. Garell,M.D. PCG/ja Encl. e ~ Tl (\d 7 J.Jt:i ~1 . 0 0- N 0 , 0- <<l 0 0 0 0 u , 0 * 0 * =1- : a:: -0 =(1) = -D :::~ -, : lIC> = -c:: =u, ~ -: = ~ -::* U N ....::~~ -* (1)>0 -= *> -cCCUI : *0 N -=:Z~ -= * Ll\...K.Jt-4 -*~ -:: * C\IQ::Q:I:Z ~:~ :*0 11..0 - * 0CL::l<: U -:: * D::_ -= :== 06> II "l t'i fl --~~-- ENVIRONS " The Tower " Inferno THE CONTROVERSY OVER CELLULAR PHONE TOWERS HEATS UP Everyone, it seems, loves the idea of talking on cel- lular telephones while they're out cruising in their cars. More than 10 million new customers signed on with wireless telephone companies last year. Over the past 10 years, the number of cell phone subscribers soared from less than 500,000 to an estimated 38 mil- lion. Currently, more than 40 cell phone companies operate in New York State. But the price to pay - envi- ronmentally speaking that is - may be more than what some people have figured on. Cell phones need antennae to relay signals. Since cellular frequencies do not tolerate obstructions, in many cases the antennae must be placed on towers. Applications from companies seeking to construct cel- lular phone towers - averaging 150 feet in height although some can go as high as 350 feet - are crop- ping up all over the place, especially along the Thruway corridor between New York City and Albany. Some are less objectionable than others, says Den- nis Doyle, principal planner in the Ulster County Plan- ning Department, but there is concern over their visual impact, such as when they show up in the middle of an apple orchard in Plattekill. "When you're driving up the Thruway, and you have the Catskills as a backdrop, it's kind of disconcerting to all of a sudden be looking through a monopole," notes Doyle. Besides Plattekill, Ulster County has ten other wire- less phone towers either under construction or in the planning stages, including two in Rosendale, two in New Paltz, one in Kingston, one in Hurley, two in the Town of Ulster, one in Saugerties and one in Rochester. Cell tower construction is booming because, ~ generally, antennae must be placed every five or ten miles to make sure the cell phone user doesn't get cut off or experience problems. (Spacing . , BY MEL HYMAN Mr. Hyman is a writer based in Albany. ILLUSTRATION BY STEVE DININNO depends on height: the higher the Need high tech mean high antennae, the further its range.) towers? Greene County is under the same ~_~~_~__~_~_ pressure from cell phone companies as Ulster County, according to Ronald Roth, director of the county planning department. "Just about every town along the river has them," he observes, including New Baltimore, Coxsackie and Catskill. One town that took the bull by the horns is Wind- ham, where a 350-foot tower was proposed for the top of Mount Hayden in the Catskills. 'That's a pretty huge structure, and was a big concern in the Town of Wind- ham," says Roth. The purpose of this particular tower, whose base would have had an elevation of 2,910 feet, was to serve the local area and interior sections of the Catskills. But its impact would have extended far beyond. "You would have seen it in the Valley, too," says Roth, especially in the lower elevations of Greene County and southern Albany County. Windham officials decided to declare a moratorium on wireless transmission towers. "They realized their site plan process wasn't designed to handle this," Roth explains. During that time, they amended their site plan review law to include cell tower site specifications, which the Mount Hayden applicant was unable to meet. One community still grappling with the cell tower Hl"DSON VALLEY JUNE 1997 . 41 s CAll 914-339-8382 'ATIONAl POND SOCIETY issue is the Town of Bethlehem. Over the past several months, the Zoning Board of Appeals has approved three towers in this relatively affluent suburb of Albany, and the town board asked town attorney Bernard Kaplowitz to draw up a local law regulating the structures. The proposed law stipulates that the tower must be "light in tone" and cannot reasonably interfere with the view from any public park, natural scenic vista, historic building or historic district. Moreover, all obsolete or unused towers must be removed within 60 days of cessation of oper- ations and no new cell tower can be approved unless the applicant demon- strates a "good faith effort" to share tower sites or mount equipment on existing struc- tures, such as water towers or tall buildings. Doyle explains that there is no legal precedent for barring cell towers altogether, although municipalities can regulate where they are built by amending their zoning laws so that they are 0 I allowed in industrial and commercial areas. "I've got a co I1ere iiithe-l own of Hilrley that's proposing one on a 30-by-30 lot that's only 50 feet from someone's house," he notes. (1be town cur- rently has a moratorium on cell tower con- struction while it considers zoning.) The time for municipalities to take actioG is now, says Doyle, because the exploding cellular phone market will create a demand for service along secondary roadways as . well. In Ulster County, Rosendale has regu- lations in place and a Plattekill proposal is now on Doyle's desk. "Municipalitipc> fled to carefully craft their regu]atic'ns in response to the Telecommunications f \ct of 1996," he emphasizes. That law says .that personal communication services (Pc'S) companies must be allowed to provide s "r- vice in an area, provided they meet sta te I \emiSSions standards, while .~nicipalitit~:.. 1 have the right to regulate the 10ca1ion oftI1e facilities, provided they make decisions in a ! timely fashion. It is, Doyle says, "a balanc- ing act." The Town of Guilderland in southern Albany County has a request from Sprint PCS to build a cellular tower next to Thruway Exit 25. According to town attor- ney John Bailey, Guilderland had consid- ered a moratorium on construction but ended up taking more concrete action. "We decided to bite the bullet and enacted a local law," he said. "We're better off having a law on the books so that we could meet the challenges of these companies." ~ )1' most silmificant asnect of the law is the pro- . hibition of towers on land zoned residential -and agricultural; they WIll be permItted in commercIal and business areas. The law also aggressively promotes the concept of co-location (sharing an existing tower); ':~I'1icants "must demonstrate that they've '.cnt over backwards to co-locate." "Municipalities across the state are just starting to deal with this," Bailey says. "Right now everyone is flying in the dark until it's clear what we can and cannot do. There are some towns in Westchester County - like Mt. Kisco - that have enacted some very stringent ordinances, and they've been aggressively challenged hy the industry." Under the Telecommuni- l'ations Act, he says, court review favors PCS companies: expedited court proce- dure specifies that pes cases against municipalities go directly to federal court and to the head of the court calendar. Doing battle with local governments is not the modus operandi that Sprint PCS employs, according to Wayne Nanna, com- pany vice president for the upstate New York area. "We want to work with local ,~'overnment whenever possible," he declares. "Our primary objective is to put antennas on as many existing structures as possible - on buildings, billboards, silos. We want to erect antennas rather than tow- ers, because they're much less expensive and they're more acceptable to people." I r' In the opinion ofLoseoh Ross, real estate manager for Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile, , III mClpa lIes are owmg e pro em wayjl i out of proportion. "It's unbelievable," he i says. "I think it's a political issue, because it's just not warranted. It annoys me that it's taken such a political direction considering how benign these things are." Politicians have indeed entered the fray. Assembly Majority Leader Michael Brag- man, D-Cicero, is proposing a package of guidelines aimed at developing an inven- tory of all cell towers in the state, encour- aging co-location of antennae on already existing sites (such as buildings and struc- tures owned by the Thruway Authority and the state Department of Transportation) and creating an issue advisory group. "We ~want to encourage the location of new cell I phone towers on appropriate state-owned (lands," said Darren Dopp, a spokesperson '\ for the majority leader. \ The administration of Governor George Pataki is also focusing on the problem. According to Dopp, "They're looking to get one of the cell phone companies to manage the cell tower sites. We think the state should be the site manager." There are currently between 15,000 and 18,000 cell towers in the U.S., says Dopp. 'The estimates are that there will be more than 115,000 towers in the year 2000." Companies will compete by promising bet- ter reception. "Better reception, meaning more towers," asserts Dopp. "If nothing is done, just think of what that can do to the landscape." & ACCEPTIl'I 49 CLINTON. THE MA Imagine. As sa V Your ov\ ease lat V Water th V Board CE midwive V Accredit Childbec For a TOI Call 914