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Lee officials need questions answered before moving forward with new cell tower

The Planning Board will continue its public hearing on the matter on Feb. 10.

Lee — With a proposal by Vertex Towers LLC for a special permit to construct a 150-foot cell tower on Beaver Dam Road, the Lee Planning Board decided to take a second look at the project before making a final decision, continuing the January 27 public hearing to February 10, at 6:30 p.m.

The group received a presentation from Vertex’s representative, attorney Francis Parisi, after the company’s application was filed on December 27. A visibility demonstration was performed on January 21 by raising a balloon to the tower’s maximum height for viewing. Photographs of the area to encompass the cell tower and within its visible range was included with the application.

A copy of the site plan for the project can be found here.

According to town bylaws, a special permit is required for any wireless communications company to install such a tower.

“We try to do the best we can to satisfy the [telecommunications] coverage objective and also be very respectful of land use and other restrictions,” Parisi said to board members.

He touted the new tower as “a public-safety necessity,” given the high number of homes in America that only have a wireless connection, the recent increase in telecommuting as a work standard, and the “more than 80 percent of 9-1-1 [emergency] calls … made from mobile phones.”

The tower will support multiple telecommunications companies such as Verizon Wireless, AT&T Wireless, T-Mobile, and Dish Network, in addition to other companies that will be added in the future. Without this proposed cell tower, Lee’s cell service reception would be impacted, he said, with the newer phone technology requiring “a better quality signal.”

The Beaver Dam Road site would bridge a small telecommunications coverage gap that currently exists along the I-90 corridor, between Chestnut Street in Lee and the western part of the Becket town line since cell towers already are in place in Lee, behind the Lee Premium Outlets mall, and Becket.

The 43-acre undeveloped parcel selected for the project already has an easement for a power line, and part of the driveway proposed to be constructed to access the new tower would be off that easement. The tract is located with a conservation-residential zoning district. “The proposed facility to be located off Beaver Dam Road is the least intrusive and only available and viable alternative to adequately meet the coverage objective to fill this significant gap in coverage,” Parisi said.

Vertex will add fencing to create a 50-foot-by-50-foot compound surrounding the tower base including a six-foot barbed-wire fence, Parisi said. Should town officials approve the project, the cell tower is slated to be completed by next winter, he said.

Regarding the project’s safety, Parisi said the cell tower’s emissions are “well below” the Federal Communications Commission’s maximum allowable radio frequency standards that have the potential to cause negative health effects.

However, Planning Board member Conrad Decker advocated that the tower is needed more to help travelers on the Massachusetts Turnpike avoid dead zones in the high-traffic area than to increase the network of Lee residents.

Additionally, board members questioned whether a bond was required to be collected from the applicant to cover the possible future costs of removing the cell tower if needed. Parisi responded that such a bond, although renewable, is generally only good for a year and hasn’t been exercised by New England entities. Also, in this case, those costs of removal might not be borne by the town since the tower will be on private property leased by Vertex, he said.

Planning Board members considered whether abutters to the proposed project had received sufficient notice of the hearing after two neighbors voiced concern that the notice requirement was not fulfilled. Town Planner Brooke Healey told The Berkshire Edge that the legal notices sent out were, in fact, accurate and all abutters within the 300-foot zone of the project received the required notice. She said the Lee town assessor provided her with the list of current residents who abut the tract within that 300-foot zone and the two people in attendance who commented that they didn’t receive notice live outside of that zone.

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