The East Hampton Town Board received a briefing on the effort to fill gaps in personal wireless communications coverage on Tuesday, with a focus on Springs.
“The goal here can be narrowed down to ‘we need to get carriers to provide complete cell coverage throughout the town and local waters,’ ” said Eric Schantz, the assistant planning director, who called cellular service “substandard and unacceptable,” with poor coverage and poor capacity not just in the summer months but throughout the year.
Mr. Schantz detailed four ongoing applications for personal wireless communications equipment. One, for a 100-foot monopole on New York State property near Hither Hills State Park in Montauk, around 60 feet above sea level, is awaiting final approval from the state, he said, and will include equipment from multiple carriers. The town has signed off on the project, he said, and “my understanding is that the project is nearly approved” by the state.
At St. Peter’s Chapel in Springs, AT&T has been working with the State Historic Preservation Office, as the chapel was identified for historical status. The proposal there is for a 70-foot pole that will, “as far as we know,” carry only AT&T equipment, Mr. Schantz said.
The planning board has been awaiting submission of a draft environmental impact statement by the Springs Fire District’s board of commissioners and Elite Towers for 13 months, Mr. Schantz said, as part of its application for a 180-foot monopole on the firehouse grounds, and not the existing 150-foot pole there. A building permit for the existing tower was revoked by the Zoning Board of Appeals and a lawsuit the fire district filed against the Z.B.A. challenging the decision was dismissed.
The 180-foot monopole project would require six variances from the Z.B.A. due to adjacent property lines within the proposed tower’s height. Alternatively, he said, the applicants could submit a revised application. Until one or the other happens, he said, the application is in limbo.
The fire district has offered to house both personal wireless and emergency communications equipment in the towner, but the town, as part of its upgrade of the emergency communications network, has settled on a site at Camp Blue Bay, owned by the Girl Scouts of Nassau County, for a 185-foot pole to house emergency communications equipment as well as equipment from the major personal wireless carriers. The planning board was to hold a public hearing on the Camp Blue Bay plan last night. Once the hearing is closed, it has 62 days to render a decision, Mr. Schantz said, but “I anticipate that will come sooner.”
While the Springs Firehouse may not be critical in the town’s upgrade of its emergency communications network, it is in an identified coverage gap for cell service, Mr. Schantz said, and a new, centrally located tower of around 150 feet in height would likely require no variances. “We strongly encourage Elite Tower and the Springs Fire Department to submit a revised proposal for a code-conforming tower to improve cell coverage in eastern Springs.”
The town has modernized its wireless code — it had not been updated since 2003 — with the goals of meeting current technology and federal and state laws while expanding the number of eligible sites and streamlining the review process. It is hoped that the town’s draft wireless master plan, being prepared by the CityScape consultancy, will be available for review by year’s end, Mr. Schantz said. That document is expected to guide the town toward addressing all coverage and capacity gaps and offer possible locations for new wireless facilities for both carriers and private property owners.
But no single tower will fix substandard cellular service in Springs or anywhere else, he said. “The coverage and the capacity issues are too big for that.” While the Camp Blue Bay project may be approved soon and will increase coverage, it will not eliminate coverage gaps throughout Springs. Gaps will remain, he said, primarily in the Accabonac Harbor area and in the hamlet’s southeast section. Additional towers will be needed to boost coverage and capacity. Tower companies, personal wireless providers, and commercial and municipal property owners must cooperate, he said, with the town ensuring safety and issuing permits when design and legal standards are met.
A multi-tiered response is needed, he said, including tall towers, which require full planning and architectural review board review, and possibly that of the zoning board of appeals and the town board; new and upgraded eligible facilities, such as wireless equipment mounted on existing buildings, and “small cell” facilities, typically utility pole-mounted antennas. The latter are “a key part of network infrastructure,” he said.
The Planning Department encourages the town board to “lead in creating the conditions for market-driven solutions,” Mr. Schantz said. “We can’t tell AT&T or any other carrier where to put their equipment, but we can facilitate, at the least, their application process” so they can offer potential solutions to coverage gaps. It should also identify appropriate locations for new facilities and approach carriers and property owners to encourage applications that would address the need for comprehensive coverage, he said.
He encouraged nonresidential property owners to contact the Planning Department to assess the appropriateness of their properties for the siting of personal wireless equipment. “Carriers do pay pretty good rents,” he said.
