The Woodstock Planning Board is treading carefully as it considers an application from AT&T for what the communications company calls a “5G retrofit” on the town-owned cellular tower on California Quarry Road. But the town may have the final say.
AT&T plans to remove four of the six antennas it has on the tower and replace two of them, so there will be two fewer antennas. Plans also include replacing some cell radio equipment in the building at the base of the tower. Any modification to or replacement of equipment requires Planning and Town Board approval.
After hearing from Brenda Blask-Lewis, site acquisition representative for Centerline Communications on behalf of AT&T, the Planning Board set a public hearing for December 2.
The application specifically references a site plan modification “to remove four antennas, installing two new; removing four TMAs (tower-mounted amplifiers), two diplexers, nine radio units and installing eight new radio units; replacing two existing DC trunks and reinforcing existing mounts on existing cell tower.” Blask-Lewis said the work is part of routine maintenance to replace aging equipment, but the new antennas will be 5G-capable.
“My understanding is that 5G is just another piece of technology that they’re using. It’s an antenna that goes on the tower, so it will be one of the antennas that they take down, an old one, and that’s going be one of the replacement antennas,” Blask-Lewis said at the November 4 Planning Board meeting.
The industry is moving to the new technology, which can handle more data bandwidth and more simultaneous calls, but critics have cited links to health effects caused by electromagnetic radiation. No officially sanctioned studies have linked 5G technology used by cell providers to health problems.
While the FCC forbids a municipality from using health concerns as a reason to deny a cell equipment application, the Planning Board denied an application from T-Mobile this summer saying it did not meet the definition of an Eligible Facilities Request because the proposed antennas and mounting array would significantly increase the footprint of the cell provider’s lease area on the tower, causing a visual impact.
An Eligible Facilities Request is a specific type of application used when a provider is making changes to existing equipment. There is a so-called 60-day shot clock on this type of request and it is approved by default if the time expires.
No visual impact argument this time
Denying AT&T’s application won’t be as straightforward as T-Mobile’s. Its new antennas are similar in size to existing equipment and will not change the footprint.
But Planning Board member Judith Kerman countered Blask-Lewis’ apparent downplaying of the new equipment. “I want to point out that 5G is a matter of high controversy in this town and it is not quite as bland a matter as you’re making it sound now,” Kerman said.
“I believe that the application really before the board is whether or not this is an eligible facility so that AT&T can apply for a building permit,” Blask-Lewis countered. “I mean, they’re not increasing the height of the tower. They’re not increasing the size of the leased space. So it’s a matter of, is this an Eligible Facility Request or isn’t it.”
Planning Board Chairman Peter Cross left the bulk of questioning to Vice Chair Stuart Lipkind, who conducted extensive research and drafted the denial of T-Mobile’s application.
Given the controversy surrounding 5G technology, Lipkind requested that AT&T stop the 60-day shot clock to give the Planning Board time to schedule a public hearing, but that is unlikely to happen.
“I also want you to understand that from the Planning Board’s perspective, a very important part of our process is to have the ability to hold a public hearing on all applications so that members of the public can come before and ask questions and fully grasp what’s being proposed and weigh in and ask questions and express their points of view about it,” Lipkind said. “I just wanted to know if you as the applicant’s representative, if the applicant would be willing to suspend the shot clock, until we can hold our public hearing…it would pick up running after the public hearing again, so that we can have a brief period of time to schedule the hearing, get out whatever notices we’re required to do and so on,” he asked Blask-Lewis.
“They don’t suspend the shot clock unless our application is incomplete. That that would be what would suspend the shot clock,” she responded. “I can ask them, but as a general rule, they have never agreed in the past to suspend the shot clock unless it’s been brought to our attention that there’s something missing from our application.”
The check’s in the mail
And speaking of the shot clock…Planning Secretary Melissa Gray noted the matter of an outstanding $100 application fee. While AT&T’s agent Centerline Communications paid $100 for the special use permit application and $2300 in escrow for any legal and consulting fees, an additional $100 is due for the site plan review.
“First of all, the shot clock’s not going to start until we receive the fees,” Planning Board member John LaValle said. Planning Board member Judith Kerman agreed the clock shouldn’t start until the town receives the check.
Blask-Lewis said she will write a check from her personal account and have it sent via overnight mail to avoid further delay.
Does expansion of use count?
Planning Board member Conor Wenk asked if an expansion of use, not just a physical change, factored into the decision of whether the application is an eligible facilities request.
“My understanding is that it’s an Eligible Facilities Request if it substantially increases the physical dimension of the tower and that has certain meaning in the FCC laws, but expansion of use you mean from 4G to 5G?” Lipkind asked.
“I don’t care who knows that I’m not a skeptic when it comes to 5G,” Wenk said. “I’m just curious about a couple of things. We can get into the technicalities of it, but yes, if the amplitude is to increase, if 5G can cover a wider area, I’m just wondering if that is at all in any sort of fashion considered an expansion of use?”
“I don’t believe it applies to whether or not they’re putting out a stronger signal from the antennas. That doesn’t factor in,” Blask-Lewis said.
“Conor, the ability to transmit over farther distances, let’s say, may raise other issues, but it doesn’t affect whether it’s an Eligible Facilities Request, which is a technical term of art under the federal laws,” Lipkind said.
Just as he was with the T-Mobile application, LaValle was skeptical of the public benefit the new equipment will bring to the people of Woodstock. “This retrofit is for one reason only. It’s for them to make more money because all this does is to make their system a little faster,” he said. “They can handle more calls. It does not increase the transmission. It does not aid the town at all. There’s no increase in coverage area. There’s no increase in distance, nothing, because their power is limited. So I mean, this is really for their benefit only.”
Town may have final say as owner
Lipkind believes the application likely meets the requirements, but the town may have more control. “As the owner of the tower, [the town] own[s] it as a proprietor just like a store owner owns his store. He can say what’s the air quality in the store, what kind of flooring does he want, how many people does he want to let in at any one time,” he said. “They’re not bound by the FCC standard for what’s acceptable. They can set their own standards in order to decide what’s in the health interests of the public,” Lipkind added.
While the Planning Board was discussing the T-Mobile application this summer, Supervisor Bill McKenna said the town, as the landlord, could deny access to the tower if it came down to that. In anticipation of recent local 5G upgrades and more coming in the future, the Town Board has retained telecommunications litigator Andrew Campanelli to help beef up its Wireless Transmission Facilities and Site Developers Law.
“I’m just suggesting to you all that, ultimately, no matter what we do, I think this goes back to the town board. They’re the proprietors of the tower and they have a lot of power,” Lipkind told his colleagues on the Planning Board.
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