Telecom Tower Hearing Rescheduled

A Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) public hearing on a proposal to obtain zoning variances needed to erect an almost 200-foot tall wireless telecommunications tower on Berkshire Road in Sandy Hook has been rescheduled to April 13.

The public hearing had been scheduled for April 5, but was rescheduled for public notification reasons to Thursday, April 13, at 8 pm at the town land use office at Canaan House at Fairfield Hills. Several other ZBA public hearings, which initially had been scheduled for April 5, also will be conducted April 13.

SBA Communications, Inc., of Waterbury, is seeking several zoning variances from the ZBA which, if granted, would allow the company to apply to build a monopole style 199-foot-tall tower for commercial wireless telecommunications at 249 Berkshire Road.

 The facility would be the eighth commercial wireless telecommunications site in Newtown, but the first facility which would be subject to new telecommunications facility regulations approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) last November.

In its application, SBA Communications, Inc., seeks several variances of the zoning regulations concerning tower setbacks and the tower’s proximity to residential buildings.

The property where the tower would be built is the site of the Sandy Hook Volunteer Fire and Rescue Company’s substation firehouse. It lies just to the east of Berkshire Road’s intersection with Checkerberry Lane. The communications firm would lease space on the property from the fire company for the tower.