An application from AT&T to build a 185-foot-tall cellphone tower in Northwest Woods was approved by the East Hampton Town Planning Board on Feb. 12.
The tower will be built on town-owned land adjacent to an East Hampton Fire Department substation, which is under construction. AT&T’s equipment, including 12 panel antennas and 15 remote radio heads, will be installed on the tower between 155 to 160 feet high, and the space above will hold the town’s emergency communications equipment.
The proposal was the result of a legal settlement between East Hampton Town and AT&T, which had sued after the planning board in 2017 denied its application to install antenna panels on an existing wind turbine at Iacono Farm on Long Lane in East Hampton.
According to the settlement, the planning board had to approve the application for the new tower by Feb. 18, 60 days after it was filed, otherwise the company would pursue its earlier plan to install the equipment at Iacono Farm.
“There’s not a member who hasn’t struggled with this application,” said Samuel Kramer, the board’s chairman, who voted in favor of it. “We’re not doing it lightly or cavalierly, but it’s undeniable that the town’s emergency services have to be given the highest consideration.”
Ed Krug, Ian Calder-Piedmonte, and Sharon McCobb voted with Mr. Kramer, while Randy Parsons, Louis Cortese, and Kathy Cunningham voted against the application.
Explaining his vote, Mr. Parsons noted that the town’s code for wireless facilities had been adopted 18 years ago and was out of date. “There is no written plan or map of preferred sites for wireless communications and emergency services facilities in the town,” he said. The town, he added, needs to be “more proactive” in determining the location and design of such structures.
The deadline imposed by the settlement led to some confusion about the wording of the board’s resolution, which was drafted during the meeting by Jameson McWilliams, its legal counsel.
After board members read the resolution, Mr. Calder-Piedmonte suggested adding a condition that explicitly required AT&T to allow the town to use the space above 160 feet for emergency communications equipment.
Ms. Cunningham wanted to require the company to change the design of a concrete pad on which an associated diesel generator and fuel storage tank will sit. A two-inch lip on the pad, she said, would protect the groundwater from runoff from the equipment.
The board settled on inserting less specific language that requires AT&T to comply with all provisions of the town’s groundwater protection policy.
Scoville Considered
Later that evening, the board considered an application having to do with Scoville Hall, the Amagansett Presbyterian Church’s parish house, which was built in 1925 and reconstructed after a fire destroyed it in 2011.
The church is seeking site plan approval to install a 1,050-square-foot bluestone terrace, a 64-square-foot concrete pad for a Dumpster, a 180-square-foot, 8-foot-deep pit to hold a generator, 6-foot-high fences to screen the Dumpster and the generator, and seven 10-foot pole-mounted lights for the parking lot. It is also seeking to relocate a shed on the property.
The proposal would require variances from the zoning board of appeals to allow for 15,061 square feet of coverage, where 13,822 square feet is now allowed.
The patio, said Richard Whalen, a lawyer for the church, would be used as a place to hold functions, and it would be named in memory of Ron Fleming, who was a member of the church.
The church had been offered an old generator for free, Mr. Whalen said, and intends to use the hall as an emergency shelter. The generator would be housed in the proposed pit and outfitted with a custom-made baffle system to dampen the noise.
Mr. Whalen said SoundSense, an acoustical consultant in Wainscott, had determined that the generator would emit 65 decibels of sound. That would exceed the town’s allowable level for noise for properties in a residential zone between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
Mr. Whalen pointed out that when the generators are not in use, they run for only about 20 minutes once a week, and could be timed to run between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., when 65 decibels is permitted by the code. “I don’t feel comfortable approving it unless I know that the noise is at a code-compliant level,” said Ms. Cunningham, and her colleagues agreed. The applicant’s lighting plan also did not comply with the code’s standards for light emissions.
Mr. Whalen said he would investigate more options to baffle the generator noise and would rethink the lighting plan before providing the board with an updated proposal.
