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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-05-19 Planning Board Minutes DRAFT 5/22/09 1 2 Planning Board 3 Minutes of the Meeting 4 Tuesday May 19, 2009 5 Town Hall, 120 Main St. 6 7:00 PM 7 8Members present: John Simons, Chairman 9 Richard Rowen, regular member 10 Timothy Seibert, regular member 11 Michael Walsh, regular member 12CourtneyLaVolpicelo, alternate 13 14Staff present: Judy Tymon, Town Planner 15 Mary Ippolito, Recording Secretary 16 17 18Chair called the meeting to order at 7:09 pm. 19 20 Chair called for the following DISCUSSION: 21 AT&T Wireless, 1 High Street – Schneider Electric is the applicant who wishes to 22 install wireless installation on their premises. 23This is a pre-application conference and 24not a submittal of a formal application process regarding that installation and operation of 25wireless communications antenna on the roof of Building 36 and additional antennas and 26related equipment inside multiple other buildings (the “Facility”) located at the above 27property. 28 29Judy: met w/Machine Shop Village committee and discussed AT&T Wireless proposal 30for antennas to provide coverage within Building 36 etc. at Schneider Electric. Judy: 31spoke w/Gerald Brown, Building Inspector, to get his opinion because AT&T is 32requesting a waiver. Jerry’s opinion was that he’s reviewed our bylaw and according to 33definition of wireless facility he believes that this requires a Special Permit. TS: read Mr. 34Brown’s letter for the record.Plse. note: MW is now present. 35Judy: the applicant provided a letter requesting a pre-application conference w/PB. 36 37Attorney Stephen Anderson of Anderson & Kreiger: stated he has a difference of opinion 38than Mr. Brown. This is an accessory use it’s not a wireless service. Schneider Electric nd 39is in I-S zoning district. There is antenna placed as markup on top of this building 2 40antenna is corner antenna. They are similar to television antenna. Antenna is used to 41receive signal from existing system in Town. This is an “old brick building” with thick 42walls that won’t get adequate wireless signal strength to operate wireless equipment. 43Owner of Schneider Electric asked AT&T to install their antennas on High Street 44property. The proposed in-building wireless system is an allowed accessory use under 45North Andover’s Zoning Bylaw. Schneider Electric property is located in I-S district. 46 Page 1 May 19, 2009 Agenda DRAFT 5/22/09 1Zoning Bylaw Section 4.135, #12 allows research and development facilities, business, 2professional and other offices, light manufacturing, warehousing and wholesaling in and 3I-S district. Schneider Electric’s business is an allowed use under these provisions. In I- 4S zoning district, zoning bylaw 4.135.12 allows, “(a) ny accessory use customarily 5incident to any of the above permitted uses, provided that such use shall not be injurious, 6noxious, or offensive go the neighborhood”. It’s intended to provide service within 7Schneider building, not meant to provide and broadcast to the public, it’s not on personal 8computer device…not on cell phones. Mr. Brown is talking about something else. 9Installation would not cause any decrease in property value. There is no lighting, 10signage, no noise, no effect on conservation or preservation, will not affect wildlife, etc. 11The only item in bylaw relating is the fact that this is in historic district. Atty. Anderson 12wants to discuss waivers requested. 13 14Engineer for the project addressed questions: YAGI antenna frequency range 806-960 15MHz/11dBi, Corner Reflector antenna Wide Band/PCS, frequency range 1600-2000 16MHz. He captured signal existing outside, small dish, bring signal into amplifier and 17broadcast system throughout building. 18 19Chair: do you measure RF emissions from that and compare it to FCC. Yes, RF is ½ 20watt. 21 22RR: are both antennas just receiver and not transmitter: No, they receive and transmit 23back to site. 24 25CL: are there any other antennas like this in Town? Judy: not that she’s aware of, these 26antennas are only allowed to be used by wireless carrier; someone could not purchase and 27use their antennas? 28 29Chair: Mr. Brown made determination based on preliminary information which he 30received from NEPA filing which provided cover letter, summary form, some plans 31showing schematics of antennas and wiring. Chair: it’s been their practice to rely on 32Mr. Brown as to how zoning works, he said clearly this requires a SP. 33 34RR: not sure he agrees w/Mr. Brown’s judgment, he read the bylaw and it’s written 35around public broadcasting facility, this one is private. If he can demonstrate this is 36radiating similar to a cell phone then RR feels this is different from intent of bylaw. 37 38Judy: a lot of regulation around monopoles, and co-locations, bylaw has not been written 39for this type of use. 40 41Chair: PB should defer to the view of Mr. Brown’s unless this is erroneous, but if Mr. 42Brown is mistaken then have a dialogue w/Mr. Brown. MW: agrees this is different from 43what we’ve had in the past, this is within the realm of reason; he doesn’t feel entirely 44comfortable w/Mr. Brown’s determination. 45 Page 2 May 19, 2009 Agenda DRAFT 5/22/09 1Judy: Mr. Brown used packet submitted prior to tonight. TS: the only thing Mr. Brown 2does is quote the bylaw and say therefore, TS wants Mr. Brown to address specific things 3such as internal facility - is commercial radio service - a common carrier wireless 4exchange service? Mr. Brown doesn’t tell why he arrived at his opinion. TS: would like 5to discuss w/Mr. Brown before PB goes any further tonight. 6 7Atty. Anderson did not request a building permit, the information provided was the 8document prepared for historic district, he wants to wait for Mr. Brown to reconsider his 9preliminary letter rather than defer to incomplete information. 10 11Engineer: There are other wireless systems in buildings in Town now, such as FIOS, 12computer, you have wireless transmitting and receiving in your house, wireless phone 13mounted on wall it’s broadcasting and receiving a wireless signal. None of these have 14come forward for zoning but they are existing in Town today. Chair: this is a matter of a 15SP to the PB. 16 17Bob Bell, Schneider Electric: utilizes wireless in conference rooms through out High St. on both sides of the street 18, wants PB to approve this tonight so this doesn’t negatively 19impact their business. 20 21Mark Depolito, 9 Pleasant St.: Are there measurements from other facilities that RF 22emissions are given off if he’s outside on the sidewalk? Engineer: max power that can 23transmit is less than ½ watt same amount as cell phone. 24 25Liz Fennessey, 77 Elm St.: smaller antenna looks different than the one she previously 26saw. Where are the photos you said you would send to her? Atty. Anderson: smaller 27antenna is PCS wireless band. The pictures came out dark, if you’re the Chair of 28Machine Shop Village and you haven’t even noticed them ….even though they are on the 29roof…. …….Plse. note: Atty. Anderson’s voice was not totally audible due to laryngitis. 30 31Chair: put this on for discussion at the next PB meeting have Mr. Brown come to next nd 32meeting of June 2 but give him a full information packet, he sited some information but 33didn’t provide his thought process or articulate it. 34 35CL: applicant is saying this doesn’t require a SP. Judy: Planning Department saw a 36public advertisement in Lawrence Tribune that a NEPA report had been filed. 37 38TS:Judy check where Tim Seibert’s property falls within this project and how many feet 39of this installation and provide this information to Tim. 40 41 42 Chair called for the following DISCUSSION: 43 Molly Town Road subdivision, 44applicant asking to submit a monitoring report monthly 45instead of weekly. Judy: environmental company is requesting to submit monthly 46monitoring reports to the Planning Department. Soils stable, erosion control adequate, Page 3 May 19, 2009 Agenda DRAFT 5/22/09 1not much construction on site now. If work occurs within 100 foot buffer zone of 2Con/Com developer will be notified. Judy: made a site visit w/Jennifer Hughes, of 3Conservation. Site looks like a junkyard, on the sites that aren’t constructed there’s a lot 4of earth removed, it’s not eroding it’s fairly stable, but piles have gotten bigger. Maybe 5the work would start to erode into the wetland areas. Judy: there are rusted out trucks on 6the premises. Charlie Carroll is developer. No open foundations at this time. Road is up 7to binder coat. Chair: Judy to check to see if lots are released. Tell them to come back in 8and clean up the sites. RR: if no earth work is being done then it’s a reasonable request 9to monitor monthly. RR: hears what you have to do to consider our agreeing to a 10monthly report. Judy submitted pictures tonight. Chair: maybe consider adding street 11sweeping etc. to decision. 12 13 Chair called for the following DISCUSSION: 14 492 Sutton Street (airport) M.E.M.L.V., LLC 15applicant has filed a formal application 16with Planning Department but is asking for discussion regarding requesting a waiver of a 17Site Plan Review Special Permit for construction of a proposed hangar. 18 19Judy: made a site visit, proposed hangar is being erected next to the last two permitted 20hangars in 2005. The previous 2 hangars went thru a Site Plan Review Special Permit 21process, however, they didn’t have to go thru an outside consultant review process 22because there was no increase in impervious surface. 23 24Motion by RR that Site Plan Review Special Permit process for 492 Sutton Street not be nd 25waived, 2 by TS, vote was unanimous. 26 27Chair: asked Judy is there a grand plan related to the airport? RR: there is a big problem 28into the access into the airport, should have an exit off Rte. #495 off the back end of 29airport but doesn’t see this happening. 30 31Plse note: Mr. MacLeod, Engineer, Andover Consultants arrived later in the evening and 32the PB revisited the discussion when Mr. MacLeod was present. 33Mr. MacLeod is now present and submitted photos tonight. Only a single hangar is 34proposed tonight, this project requires a light switch and a door switch, no sewer, water, 35gas, an electric line comes in underground, basically this is for storage of an aircraft that 36the applicant Mr. Scott has submitted. Request for waiver of Site Plan Review SP is to 37save time, and recording costs, and going thru appeal period, and no-one shows up for 38this. Nothing gets changed on the Site Plan, positioning hangar/building where there is 39pavement. Would the PB give some consideration because bylaw does allow PB to 40waive Site Plan Review SP process? Can’t see the building from the street, public 41doesn’t have access to the building, there is a security gate and secure passkey. Project 42isn’t generating traffic, or pedestrian traffic. 43 44RR: the issue is issuing the proper approval with “conditions” in there that the PB 45normally puts in their decision specifically in the “conditions” of what specific things you 46can’t do in a hangar. RR thinks Site Plan Review has merit. Page 4 May 19, 2009 Agenda DRAFT 5/22/09 1 2Chair: If Judy took the previous decision relative to the previous (2) hangars and used it 3as appropriate wording for this one and if Mr. MacLeod can accommodate us and have 4everything ready by then the PB can open and close it in one night. Chair agrees, PB can 5waiveoutside consultant review process on this one too. 6 Chair called for the following DISCUSSION: 7 Turnpike Street, Walgreens/PETCO: 8Chair: thought this one didn’t come out as 9nicely as he wished. Judy: submitted pictures tonight. She has as-built and all things are 10in existence, however, a metal guardrail exists, the decision states there would be a 11wooden guardrail. 12 13RR: in tower at Walgreen’s there is a corner tower type of structure that looks like a 14piece of plywood with mortar painted on it. 15 16Chair: check on number of trees? Judy: did look at number of trees and checked on 17Waverly Road side and number of trees were rearranged on the plan. Chair: the depth of 18PETCO and the way utilities show coming down is more severe than he thought. Chair: 19wants to engage them (developer) to shelter this in a particular way. Chair: if metal 20guardrail is the best practice of State Highway, but PB always had a fence with 21landscaping in front which creates a buffer between public and private space this doesn’t 22exist there. Chair: landscaping on corner of property is scaled far too small for size of 23open space it’s out of proportion; put a row of landscaping by parking lot. Chair: Judy do 24a workshop with them and get them to come in here for a discussion. 25 26 Chair called for the following PUBLIC HEARING: 27 Omnipoint Communications, Inc. – 72 Elm Street, Trinitarian Congregational 28 Church, 29Site Plan Review SP to install, operate, & maintain a stealth wireless 30communication facility consisting of up to 4 wireless telecommunication antennas 31mounted within the existing spire, radio communication equipment cabinet to be located 32within existing Church within R-4 zoning district. 33 34Plse. note: Tim Seibert recused himself from this Omnipoint hearing: 35 36Judy: gave a brief overview – reviewed application in May 2009 and application was 37missing items which have now been provided: Structural report was received - no 38structural upgrades are required, antennas be supported by a new pipe mass, cabinet to be 39in library at ground level. Noise study was provided takes into account there could be 40two wireless at 70 Elm St. Air-condition unit to be located outside of the church. 41Applicant has since provided a NEPA report; MA historic has provided no effects on 42historic property district.Requested waiver for design, site filing requirements, what 43specific waiver do you require, they will provide this list of waivers. 44 45Representative from Omnipoint spoke: 42 % of people use cell phones, 300 emergency 46calls are made on mobile phones daily. Chair: talk to RF emissions and alternative site Page 5 May 19, 2009 Agenda DRAFT 5/22/09 1you looked at and why they aren’t available. He passed out photos to the PB tonight. 2Location chosen by the RF engineers expertise, and handed out specs tonight. 3 4Judy: windows are custom made on site, so Judy couldn’t get actual window to provide to 5Machine Shop Village Committee. 6 7Christoher King, representative for Omnipoint, spoke and stated he checked 8w/construction engineers it was easier to make the windows on site, that’s why he 9submitted pictures of existing steeple in Newburyport. RF engineer report was 10submitted by Glenn Kreisberg, RF Engineer, pictures were submitted showing on air sites 11within 1 mile of North Andover boundary, additional pages to show existing coverage 12without 4BZ0023A and another page contained existing coverage with 4BZ0023A. He 13submitted list of other facilities he looked at to PB tonight. RF emissions are well below 14the standards that are set. 15 16Chair: read the RF level information submitted in handout tonight. Chair: Judy send this 17new material to PB consultant for review. Judy: has not contacted Mark Hutchins yet. 18 19MW: wants an independent appraisal done and RF report done. 20 21Chair: should take Mr. Hutchins less time to review this site than the first time. 22 23Judy: is waiting for applicants waiver list. There are two waivers already submitted. Ask 24to have the air-condition thing waived. Yearly noise reports were asked to waive. Judy: 25recommended noise reports not be waived, she wants yearly noise report done. Town of 26N.A. does not do surety bonds Town does cash bonds so PB won’t waive this one. Judy; 27entire sections were requested to be waived. Should say these are the ones we’re waving. 28Chair; look at the prior decision and see what PB waived. 29 30Mr. King: will have this information ready on Monday. Chair: called for comments from 31the audience. 32 33Ms Fennessey, Elm St.: asking questions about map what is coverage in white spot? It’s 34for car coverage but if you’re walking you get coverage. Concerned about another 35antenna, nothing in file from Mr. Brown telling them they don’t need a variance and can 36go straight to PB. Submitted letter signed by Keith Mitchell, Lynn Arvikar, Bernice 37Fink, Don Stewart, dated 2009 and various other documents for the record. Ms 38Fennessey: read letters from the file regarding applications for various locations. 39Submitted a disk of this year’s Town Meeting and read Mr. Brown’s interpretation. 40Stated that Mr. Brown chose this way because of a lawsuit, but he wasn’t following the 41law. BOS supported article #33 at Town Meeting. Ms Fennessey: asked PB to refer this 42matter to the ZBA where it belongs. 43 44RR: voted for her article after the PB article was defeated. Reason was that as PB reads 45the bylaw and interpreted it there are inconsistencies and conflicts in the bylaw as 46written. Second warrant article took away all ambiguity, he voted for it because he wants Page 6 May 19, 2009 Agenda DRAFT 5/22/09 1to have a clear and consistent bylaw on the book to make judgments other than any 2ambiguity. He believed this honestly if it passed it would clarify things but if PB made 3judgments based on clarified bylaw he believes PB would be in court and be challenged, 4let’s get it over with and bring it to a head and have the Court system rule on this matter. 5 6Ms Fennessey: sees Mr. Brown is not following the law and the PB is following Mr. 7Brown. 8 9Chair: Ms Fennessey is overstating how PB interpreted bylaw and there is ambiguity 10there, different people with good faith could come up with different answers because of 11the way the law is written. Agree there are shades of gray and PB is not unreasonable 12and stupid you should hone this to some degree. 13 14Ms Fennessey: boils down to settle these matters in court, she has hard time when certain 15things are put in front of PB and PB agrees with Mr. Brown. Chair:PB will get a letter 16form Mr. Brown again. 17 18Christopher King: explained rational that now many more people are working at home, in 19the year 2015 you will see increase of data transfer on these line, Town needs to be able 20to use their services for a living, this is the least intrusive way to do that. See application, 21Mr. King: feels Omnipoint is under the same law that pertained to MetroPCS. 22 23Thea Fournier, 247 Main St., bottom line is there a true gap in coverage? Bob Nicetta 24former Building Inspector interpreted the bylaw in 2000 and didn’t find shades of gray. 25The bylaw is being mis-read. Omnipoint is breaking the Towns bylaw again as well as 26MetroPCS. Ms Fournier submitted document from Edward Collins tonight regarding 600 27feet setback copy for the record. 28 29Chair: Judy give the applicant Thea’s document that she’s read tonight. 30 31Ms Fournier: drove around area and can’t find any gap in coverage. Chair asked if she 32had experience with engineers regarding gap in coverage? Ms Fournier: worked with 33engineers on this. Omnipoint ended up on Stevens Estate despite their instance that there 34were not any other sites available to cover gap in coverage. Ms Fournier finds engineers 35are working for industry so they are bias.Chair: if someone works for you that means 36they are not biased? 37 38MW: PB hired independent person to take a look and will be asking him again to do this 39tonight? Is that person sub-standard? Ms Fournier: he didn’t talk about significant 40effects and other regulations. Omnipoint wants a free-bee here; they can’t prove there is 41a significant gap in coverage. This should go before ZBA. 42 43Christopher King: T. Mobile isn’t getting a freebee; they have no reason to spend money 44to put a tower that they don’t need. 45 Page 7 May 19, 2009 Agenda DRAFT 5/22/09 1Loretta Wentworth, 15 Pleasant St., lives less than 300 feet away from the church. Many 2towns have setbacks and have no problem enforcing them. People had left Town Meeting 3early or their article would have passed. 4 5Chair: emissions are going to be 1 1,000 of a statutory limit. 6 7Ms Wentworth: evidence is clear that property values will be affected in a negative way. 8By paying church lots of money hiding antennas in steeples who will object? Residents 9are objecting. Submitted decline in property values document tonight dated 2003 for the 10record. 11 12MW: is this appraisal of 2003 on the smoke stack? Ms Wentworth: yes. MW: if you 13could put something current into the record he would like to read it. Ms Wentworth: will 14try to get updated data to submit for the record. 15 16RR: are people inquiring/asking because they want to ensure that there is coverage for 17their phone? Ms Wentworth: no, a house she handled started out at $700K, now it’s 18down to $629K, in photo there is a cell tower located behind property. 19 20Christopher King: ran a closing company for years and people asked is there cell tower 21coverage? 22 23Mark Depolito, 9 Pleasant St. submitted a document for the record regarding Clarkstown, 24New York versus Verizon Wireless case. What’s different about this equipment? 25 26Christopher King: ties into 911 thing tries to identify where someone is in case of 27emergency. Entirely concealing towers, everyone is broke now that’s why houses aren’t 28selling now. 29 30Mr. Depolito: he’s a user of T. Mobile & he gets perfect coverage at Steven’s Estate area 31and Pleasant St. he’s not sure where the gap in coverage is. 32 33Christopher King, he’s here because he gets calls from his clients saying they aren’t 34getting coverage. He’s not here to waste money because he gets dropped calls. And that’s 35why they are requesting a SP be granted. 36 37Janice Williams, 88 Elm St., will be reviewing materials for replacing the window and 38review placement of air-condition and landscaping. She wants to review the materials for 39clapboard. Why do they have to replace these materials? Concerned about structural 40integrity of the leaning steeple toward her house. Chair: Judy we have structural report 41take a look at it and make sure our engineer looks at it as well. 42Christopher King: sometimes windows are leaded, the wood is a problem, and he’ll 43provide a sample of window material. 44 Page 8 May 19, 2009 Agenda DRAFT 5/22/09 1Thea Fournier, Main St., because there is lead metal in windows, signals can’t go thru 2because of metal? Mr. King: it could be wood causing the problem instead. Ms Fournier: 3we should be concerned if signal goes thru window material. 4 5Chair: Judy summarize our punch list. 6List of waivers,Judy will get a letter from Mr. Brown in terms of zoning. Provide to 7applicant material she received from residents submitted tonight. Judy will talk w/Mark 8Hutchins and get a contract for review of this application, alternative analysis and gap in 9coverage, she’ll look at structural report, she’s in process of distributing material in time th 10for May 28 meeting w/historical Machine Shop Village committee. 11 12Chair: if Judy needs to follow up w/PB or Town Counsel go ahead. 13 ththth 14RR: will be out of town on June 16 and 17. Chair: Schedule June 9 for the next 15meeting. 16 th 17Liz Fennessey: ZBA will be having their meeting on June 9? Chair: we’re short a 18person and TS recused himself tonight. Judy schedule around the time to hear this thrd 19w/ZBA. Chair: plan on June 9 if we don’t get information back flip to June 23. If Judy nd 20doesn’t have anything for June 2 then don’t have that. We can have meeting on June ndth 212 and have meeting on June 16 or June 23rd depending on when we get Mark 22Hutchins report back. 23 24 Chair called for following DISCUSISON: 25 Coalition for Zoning Reform 26 Plse. note: recording secretary took a bathroom break. 27 28 Chair called for the following DISCUSSION: 29 Town Meeting wrap-up 30 31Drive thru’s discussed at Town Meeting lasted about 45 minutes. Come up with 32something and walk all properties, work way backward what zoning needs to be to 33accommodate that. Lots at beginning of street - the lots are almost too small you have to 34stay with same footprint. 35 36 Chair called for approval of MINUTES OF THE MEETING: 37 May 5, 2009 “Minutes” 38 nd 39Motion by MW to approve May 5, 2009 “Minutes” 2 by TS, vote was unanimous. 40 nd Motion to adjourn by MW, 2 by TS, meeting adjourned at approximately 10:00 41 pm. 42 43 44By order of the Planning Board 45 Approved 46 Page 9 May 19, 2009 Agenda