Town hires cell consultant
Published on July 2nd, 2003
STONEHAM, MA - On August 21, the Town's Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) will render a decision on T-Mobile Omnipoint's request to erect nine cell antennas on 159 Franklin Street.
At the meeting held last Thursday night, the board unofficially endorsed Vermont resident Mark F. Hutchins, a radiofrequency engineer, as its independent consultant who will verify data presented by the cell-carrier at last May's ZBA meeting.
"Since our last meeting, I've spent some time trying to find a consultant who can best review this proposal and serve the interests of this town and the applicants in a fair way," explained Town Counsel Bill Solomon.
"I feel the consultant who can best serve this board is Mark Hutchins out of Vermont," Solomon advised.
Hutchins will be charged with the task of reevaluating information presented by T-Mobile that postulates the existence of a two-mile long gap in coverage that runs throughout eastern Stoneham.
Last May, three representatives from T-Mobile argued that the hole in coverage constituted a significant gap that could not be addressed through alternative sites, including areas in Stoneham and other communities specifically zoned for the placement of cell antennas.
If Hutchins' review of the data substantiates T-Mobile's claims, the ZBA might be forced to overlook the Town's zoning bylaws because the 1996 Federal Telecommunications Act prohibits local municipalities from denying building permits to cell-carriers with a significant gap in its coverage that can't be addressed through alternative means.
According to Solomon, Hutchins would review propagation studies submitted by T-Mobile, conduct drive tests to evaluate the size of the coverage gap, review the Town's bylaws, and examine the possibility of placing the antennas at a different location.
Although Needham Attorney Ken Spigle, who represents T-Mobile, agreed with the board's consultant choice, he angrily voiced his objections to not hearing from Solomon for five weeks.
"Bill, maybe I can save some time. We don't have a problem with Mr. Hutchins as the consultant. We have a problem with not knowing what he's going to do, and not hearing from you for five weeks. We don't have one iota of information about what he's being asked to do," Spigle announced.
Responding to Spigle's complaints, Solomon assured the T-Mobile representatives that they would receive a full report on Hutchins' scope of work by this Tuesday.
In addition, Solomon explained that finding a local consultant not directly linked with the wireless industry proved a difficult task.
"There are not a lot of consultants in this area who work for municipalities, most of them work for the wireless industry...I spoke to several consultants from as far as Maryland, New York state and further west. As I mentioned last hearing, finding a consultant is not something that was going to happen over night," said Solomon.
Despite the Town Attorney's explanations, Spigle continued to complain about not being contacted by the Town after Solomon speculated that Hutchins would be asked to look at T-Mobile's roaming contracts in the area.
"I think had the town spoken to me in the past five weeks about the scope of the work, some of these things wouldn't even be listed. Omnipoint has no roaming contracts in this area so it seems like a waste of time to include it in the scope of the work," began Spigle with a raised voice, staring directly at Solomon.
"I think the scope of the work is excessive and I'm very concerned about the way this is being set up. This is going to drag on and on and on. The time period for acting on a variance request is 100 days after submitting the application. We're going to be way over that time period and part of that is because nothing happened in the past 35 days," he added, his face flushing red with frustration.
Although the Needham Attorney threatened to not allow the hearing to continue beyond the 100 day period, Spigle agreed to extend the hearing until August 21 after Solomon argued that doing so served the interests of both parties.
"The board retains a consultant not because it wants to find a particular determination but because it wants the facts. I would ask that the applicant agree to that (an extension) because at the end of the day, an open process with a professional consultant would serve all parties," Solomon remarked.
Opening the hearing to the public, several Stoneham residents stepped forward to speak in favor of the project.
"I was very skeptical in the beginning about what this was going to do to us healthwise if that's part of your concern," said Villa Grande trustee Karen Parker. "T-Mobile and Sprint came to our trustee meeting last winter and basically had a separate consultant from Harvard speak to us about the health concerns. It's completely healthy. You can stand right next to it. They don't recommend that you stand next to it for 30 years straight, but it's completely healthy," added Parker, explaining that Villa Grande needed the project for financial reasons.
Also a Villa Grande trustee member, Richard Fiore presented a petition signed by residents endorsing the cell-antenna proposal.
However, ZBA member Frank Vallarelli took issue with the petition, claiming it was meaningless without the signatures of persons who live outside of the condominium complex.
"I've been managing apartment complexes for 20 years now and if you had one resident on here who didn't live in the building it would mean something," remarked Vallarelli.
"But it's on our roof," retorted an audience member.
"But it's going to lower your condo fees," Vallarelli shot back, laughing as he spoke.
The only person in the crowd to speak against the project, Rustic Avenue resident Jeanie Avola advised ZBA members to ignore legal cases cited by Spigle as reasons to approve the variance.
"They use these cases as threats. The telecommunications companies come in and state cases that they won. But cases that haven't been appealed to a higher court are only binding between the two parties originally involved," explained Avola.
Because ZBA chairman Bill Sullivan was unavailable to attend last week's meeting, he will no longer sit in on the hearing with T-Mobile.
Sprint, which also has plans to place 12-antennas on top of the Villa Grande Condominium Complex, had its hearing continued until July so that Sullivan could sit in on the proceedings.
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