By Andrew Gorosko

The Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) has approved new zoning regulations to control the siting of commercial wireless telecommunications facilities, including towers, antennas and electronics buildings.

The new regulations will give the town certain regulatory powers over the placement of facilities intended for cellular telephony and other forms of commercial radio telecommunications.

 The regulations are intended to balance the need for such facilities with protecting the public health, safety, convenience and property values. The new rules acknowledge the limitations placed on municipalities by the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, which bars towns from banning such telecommunications facilities.

Newtown now has seven sites for commercial wireless telecommunications: off Berkshire Road, near Newtown High School; off South Main Street, near the Monroe town line; off the end of Ferris Road; at the Connecticut Light and Power Company’s service center on Barnabas Road in Hawleyville; off Interstate-84 in Hawleyville near the Brookfield town line; in the steeple of The Meeting House on Main Street; in the tower of Edmond Town Hall on Main Street.

The new regulations, which took effect November 29, received the unanimous approval of P&Z members. The regulations come during a period when more applications for wireless telecommunications facilities are expected.

Under the regulations, the Zoning Board of Appeals will be the agency that reviews applications for the siting of wireless facilities.

Elizabeth Stocker, the P&Z’s staff planner, told P&Z members that Joel Rinebold, the executive director of the Connecticut Siting Council, had reviewed the town’s wireless telecommunications regulations. The town’s regulations will cover those facilities not under the jurisdiction of the siting council, Ms Stocker said. The siting council is an arm of the state’s Department of Public Utility Control.

Decisions on regulating telecommunications facilities should be based on a standard that balances the need for a facility with its effects on the environment and the community, according to Mr Rinebold.

P&Z Chairman Daniel Fogliano said the town’s enacting a moratorium against the installation of new telecommunications facilities would be legally more complex and time consuming than the P&Z simply approving a set of regulations for such facilities.

Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) Chairman Charles E. Annett, III, said the town’s new wireless telecommunications regulations are comprehensive and will provide the ZBA with a detailed framework for considering such applications.

Noting the local presence of six cellular telephony sites, Mr Annett said there might be a demand for another six such sites in the next four to five years. Some existing telecommunications sites are now being shared by more than one company, and others could be shared, Mr Annett noted. The siting council encourages telecommunications firms to share towers to limit the overall number of towers in a community.

“This is a ‘high profile’ issue in terms of citizens. They don’t want them [towers] in their backyards,” Mr Annett said.

Jean St Jean, the Borough zoning official, noted that two of the local telecommunications sites are in the Borough. “The regulations are extremely well written,” she said. Technicians recently installed telecommunications equipment in the steeple of The Meeting House. Equipment installation in the tower of Edmond Town Hall is planned.

In the detailed regulations, the P&Z explains its intent in creating the rules.

The rules are intended to encourage the location of commercial wireless telecommunications towers and antennas away from residential neighborhoods and to protect natural and scenic vistas. The rules encourage the placement of facilities on non-residential buildings and structures. The regulations also encourage the joint use of new or existing towers and facilities.

Through the rules, the P&Z hopes to minimize the adverse visual and operational effects of the facilities through careful design, siting, and screening, and hopes to protect historic aspects of the community from adverse effects.

The regulations are intended to reduce the number of towers and/or antennas needed in the future and to accommodate the need for such facilities, while regulating their location and number.

 Firms which want to install wireless facilities in town must apply for a special permit from the ZBA. If the application involves adding a wireless antenna to an existing facility, it will be treated as an amendment to a special permit.

In the new regulations the P&Z establishes a set of “location preference guidelines” for the placement of telecommunications facilities. In descending order of preference, these general locations are:

A camouflaged facility on an existing non-residential building or structure located in an industrial, business, adaptive reuse, or design district zone.

On existing telecommunications towers.

On existing structures, such as non-residential buildings, located in an industrial, business, adaptive reuse, or design district zone; on water towers, water tanks, utility poles, billboards and bridges.

A camouflaged facility on an existing non-residential building or structure in any zone.

On new towers located on property occupied by one or more existing towers.

On new towers located in an industrial, commercial, adaptive reuse, or design district zone.

On new towers located in residential or conservation/ agriculture zones.

 The regulations require that the visual obtrusiveness of towers be minimized; that towers be set well back from property lines; and that towers be at least 500 feet from dwellings, playgrounds, parks and schools. The regulations would allow more than one tower on a lot if applicable requirements are met.

The rules encourage towers in residential zones to be a monopole design. The ZBA may require that a monopole tower be designed so that it is camouflaged to resemble a woody tree with a single trunk and branches on its upper part, or some other suitable art form or sculpture.

The rules also require a steel security fence with barbed wire, plus evergreen screening, at telecommunications sites.

The P&Z prohibits lights on towers unless required by the siting council or the Federal Communications Commission. The siting council requires navigation lights on towers more than 200 feet tall.

The buildings that hold telecommunication electronics near towers must be in architectural harmony with the neighborhood, according to new P&Z regulations.

The rules require the applicant to provide the ZBA with an analysis of the tower’s visibility from the surrounding area. The board may require the applicant to loft a large balloon at the site to demonstrate the height and visibility of a proposed tower.

The owner, at the owner’s expense, according to the regulations, shall remove any wireless telecommunications facility that remains unused for 12 consecutive months. The town may require the owner to post a bond to ensure the removal of a facility.

Public radio telecommunications facilities are exempted from the regulations.