In the face of fierce opposition from local residents, the applicant for a proposed cell tower in Jonesville has asked the Clifton Park town board to refrain from taking any action for one month while it considers other locations.
At the beginning of last week, the applicant asked that we table, in their words, the resolution for one month as they look at alternative sites, said Supervisor Phil Barrett at the Monday, Aug. 20 meeting. `We’re fine with that. We’re going to sit tight.`
The applicant is Independent Towers, Verizon Wireless, and Clearwater USA. The application requested permission to build a 120-foot cell tower on the property of Van Patten Golf Course in Jonesville, in a wooded area near Dyer Drive and Main Street.
The proposed site appeared to be in violation of a local law requiring a 500-foot buffer around any such towers to family dwellings. Based on a map provided by the applicant, the site is approximately 250 feet from Dyer Drive residences.
Jonesville neighbors Ron Enfield and Ron Winters both have homes within 500 feet of the proposed site.
`My main concern is the terrible visible impact that the tower would have on the hamlet. We have a little 1840 hamlet here,` Winters said. `To put something like this cell tower right in the middle of the hamlet so you see it everywhere you go, something that is obviously incompatible with an 1840 revival community, that’s just unacceptable.`
Enfield said that health safety and property value impacts also concerned residents, and he was pleased the applicant chose to look at other possible locations.
`They, in their wisdom, decided to pull it for a month and look at other viable options,` Enfield said. `If they want to move forward in that cell tower area we will come out and fight against it.`
The cell tower application, which was sent to the town on June 15, claimed that the tower would provide a necessary service to the Jonesville area.
`The town is lacking adequate coverage in the area surrounding the site the proposed installation is a public necessity,` the application claimed.
About two dozen residents came to a July board meeting in which the board expressed its intent to hold a public hearing on the matter in September.
Board members voted against a resolution that would have sent the application to the planning board for recommendation. Councilman Tom Paolucci has abstained from any votes on the matter because he works for an unrelated department of Verizon Wireless.
`It’s a separate total company from Verizon Wireless that is making this application,` he said at the time. `To avoid any potential apparent conflict that looks that way I’m going to abstain from voting on this.`
`I would like to see, and I think the board would like to see, a different location,` Barrett said after Monday’s meeting. `I have spoken to people about different areas that the cell tower might be able to be located that might work better for everybody and I’m very hopeful we can come up with a solution that can work for everybody.`
One alternative site mentioned is the nearby Elks Club on MacElroy Road. However, the applicant claims that this location was tested using transmitters on cranes in 2006 and it would not provide the coverage that the Van Patten location would.
`(The Elks Club location) provides significantly redundant coverage with the Kinns Road water tank (presuming the site is built) and does not adequately cover the core Jonesville residential areas east of the town center,` the application claimed.
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