Residents want stricter cell tower regs

A group of residents have submitted a petition warrant article to change the town’s cell phone tower regulations to “protect and preserve” 13 hilltop locations and to “preserve the skyline” of seven specific areas, including properties overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee, Alton Bay and Alton Village.

The petition, which was signed by more than 40 residents, including Selectman Pete Shibley, was handed in last week by Alton Bay resident Alden Norman Jr. Norman has been made public comments recently questioning the appropriateness of the town’s actions regarding two cell tower applications submitted by Industrial Communications and Electronics of Marshfield, Ma., and companies representing the Unicel and U.S. Cellular cell phone businesses.

The petition lists 13 places where “hilltop appearances” should be protected and preserved: Mount Major Recreation Area, Ragged Mountain, Cedar Mountain, Evans Hill, Derby Mountain, Cates Hill, Halls Hill, Hard Head Hill, Hayes Hill, Rocky Mountain, Pine Mountain, Alton Mountain and Goat Pasture Hill. The seven places where the skyline should be preserved, according to the petition, are Gilman’s Corner, Halls Hill Road, Roberts Cove Road, Chestnut Cove Road, Alton Village, Alton Bay and Lake Winnipesaukee properties — including, but not limited to, Black Point, Cedar Cove, Clay Point, Lakeside, the former Camp Alton, the Woodlands, Echo Point, the islands and “other properties located on or near the shore of Lake Winnipesaukee.”

The far-reaching petition also calls for the reinstatement of a stipulation that was part of an earlier telecommunication ordinance, which restricted cell tower construction to only rural-zoned areas of town.

The petition comes on the heels of the heated dispute between Industrial Communications and its corporate partners and the town’s land-use boards. At the last joint meeting of the Planning and Zoning Board of Adjustment (ZBA), Planning Board Vice-Chairman Tom Hoopes made a motion that the town pay for a study to look at whether the residents could get acceptable cell phone coverage from five or six smaller towers rather than the two large ones the company has proposed. The motion passed, but the company’s representatives – Director of Operations Donald Cody and attorney Earl Duval — objected strenuously.

“Underhanded,” Duval called it immediately after the short but heated meeting was adjourned. During the meeting, Cody told the joint boards that his company had asked for a decision on its two applications, not for suggestions on alternative means of gaining coverage. Previously Cody had said there was no other way to get adequate cell phone coverage in Alton, but he admitted he did not expect to get approval from the town boards and thought his case would eventually wind up in Belknap County Superior Court, where he can seek relief.

Until March, the town’s zoning ordinance restricted cell tower construction to rural areas and four other specific locations: Mount Prospect, Mount Bet, Straightback Mountain and a location on Old Wolfeboro Road. In addition, two areas were specifically eliminated: Mount Major and areas within 50 feet of Lake Winnipesaukee.

The voters approved a new telecommunications zoning ordinance at the annual town meeting that allows the construction of towers virtually anywhere in town as long as they do not disturb the “viewshed” and efforts are made to disguise the towers, such as putting them in flagpoles, fake trees or church steeples. Town planners suggested the less stringent regulation would limit cell towers heights to roughly within 10-feet above the treeline. At the same time, federal law does not permit a town to forbid the construction of all cell phone facilities.

Industrial Communication’s applications included building two 150-foot cell phone towers: one on Miramichie Hill at 486 East Side Drive/Route 28A, and the other by Roberts Knoll at 1439 Wolfeboro Highway/Route 28. In September, the company performed a weather balloon test, approximating the height of each towers to see how visually disturbing they might be.

The Roberts Knoll site had little negative impact but the Miramichie Hill location was visible from many areas of town, particularly around Alton Bay, according to planners and town officials who participated in the tests.

In any case, both proposals would be outside the current regulations and would require a variance to be granted by the ZBA and at the next joint meeting of the land-use boards, the Planning Board reached several “findings” — one of them being that the towers were higher than the regulations allowed.

It then tried to pass the case onto the ZBA, but zoning board members said they were ineligible to make any decision on an application until after the Planning Board had made some kind of decision of its own.

The next joint meeting of the boards is scheduled for next month.

But the timing of the case could present problems for the petitioned warrant article presented to town officials last week. Normally the Planning Board would hold a public hearing on a petitioned article, during which is members would discuss the issue and decide whether or not to support it.

But with the Industrial Communications case still before the board it is unclear how it can hold the public hearing — now tentatively scheduled for December — without appearing to compromise its deliberations on the Industrial Communications case.

According to minutes from the last Planning Board meeting, Vice-Chairman Hoopes asked Planning Technician Monica Jenkins to contact Town Counsel James Sessler for advice on how to handle the situation.