This government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable subscribers. >> Tonight's meeting March 5th, 2026. Planning board. I have full board complete tonight.
Richard Harris is here, our consultant. So, our first uh order of business, we have Francis Paresi here from Atlantic Tower LLC
who would like to discuss a cell tower be located at one Cook Road. So, Mr. Paresi Are you still there? >> I am. Can you all hear me?
>> Yes. >> Yep. >> Yes, we can. >> So, let us hear what your plans are before you apply for a permit. >> Hey, Paul. >> Yeah.
>> I I think one of your um connections need to need needs to be muted. So you have your uh phone or your computer because it's echoing um its broadcast.
So there's two volumes or there's two two mic >> microphones. >> Yeah. Thank you. >> Uh I I guess I'll start. My name is Fran Paresi. I'm an attorney working with a company called Atlantic Tower. We're actually an affiliate of Vertex Tower.
So, if I jump back and forth between Atlantic and Vertex, it's all the same thing. Um, we're going to be coming to Southampton to seek a special permit from the planning board um uh for what's called a wireless telecommunications facility, but the rest of the world
calls it a cell tower at One Cook Road. Um, by way of introduction, Atlantic Tower is what we call a wireless infrastructure developer. Um, um, we partner up with various telecommunications companies to build wireless infrastructure. We've been very active in um, the area surrounding
Southampton. We've built towers in Ashefield, Colin, Shootsbury. We've got approvals in Buckland and Conway. and uh u we're uh very aggressively uh uh building wireless infrastructure in a
lot of very underserved areas including Southampton. Um we've done this very successfully in u uh many uh towns in in what I would call rural Massachusetts. U and uh um and so I've been in front of many different planning and zoning and
other land use boards um throughout Massachusetts and I'm kind of familiar with the process. Uh, I've gone through your zoning bylaw. It It's pretty clear that we need a special permit from the planning board. I don't need any
variances from the zoning board. >> There'll be a few waiverss that we'll be seeking which is permitted by the zoning bylaw from the planning board. um with the chair's permission if it's possible I could share I have the the site plans on my screen and I don't know if you
guys can uh allow me to share my screen u can you guys see my site plans now >> um I can't yet let me see here what I got to do different oh there it is yep >> and just so for you know Um, okay,
perfect. I had two Paul Demons, both muted, but one just came unmuted, so we might be able to hear him now. >> All right, perfect. >> Um, the the property is on um um one Cook Road. It's a very large what appears to be a horse farm. I'll quite
frankly tell you, I've never been there, but uh it's a very large property that fronts on Cook Road. Um and the facility is going to be set way back about 1,000 ft off of Cook Road. um in the back. Um the next plan is an aerial photo. Cook
Road is way off to the left there. Um and uh the facility is set way back. Um as required by your zoning bylaw, it's in an area that's already been cleared by uh for horse activity, I believe. Um so the amount of trees that we're taking
down in the construction process is minimal. Two or three at I think three or four at most. Um we'll be utilizing the existing access driveway off of uh um Cook Road. Um there's already utility service on the property that will be
extending underground to the back of the facility uh to the back where the facility will be and uh it's amply set back as required by your zoning bylaw u from all abuing properties and things like that. So um we tried very much to
uh um comply with your zoning bylaw as much as possible. Um the facility itself is called a a monopole. It's a single pole on which initially Verizon Wireless and other telecommunications companies over time will attach antennas. Um
there's lots of examples. I can steer you towards other similar facilities. I don't think there's anything in Southampton, but there's certainly similar facilities in surrounding communities. Um but most importantly uh um everyone in the process of butters will get notice. I'm sure the town will
hear about this. The planning board's going to want to know. Um one of the things that we find very helpful is we'll do a visibility demonstration. So after I file the application, but before the first planning board uh hearing,
we'll uh put a balloon up in the air and we'll give everybody as much notice as possible. We'll notify the abuters. We'll put an ad in the paper. Uh we'll I'll let the planning board know when it's going to be and we can put a balloon up and and we engage engineers to u um take pictures of it and if
necessary do photo simulations to show what it's going to look like and more importantly what it's not going to look like because um the facility itself will be 160 ft tall which will require a waiver from your uh uh zoning bylaw. However, you know, in in reality, given
the setbacks, given the perspective, it's really not going to be that visible. Um, I can't say it's invisible, but uh the visility demonstration will help us show where it's visible and where it's not visible. And we find that it's just uh especially from the closest vantage points um given the, you know,
the trees in the area and the canopy around it u that uh it it it's going to be min minimal visibility. Um, other than that, I don't know that there's any other waiverss that we require. I'm going to go back through the zoning bylaw one last time and I'll what I'll
do is I'll go through the zoning by do have a very extensive bylaw as most towns do regulating these type of facilities. Um, and I'll go through it and say here's how we comply. Here's how we comply. If I don't comply, we'll request a waiver. But uh I'm I'm pretty confident given the uh the lack of cell
phone coverage in in Southampton and the demand for the service that uh people are going to react very favorably to this type of facility. We've been we've been uh very wellreceived in uh many of the most of the towns that we go into in in rural Massachusetts. Um that's really
it that I have to tell you. I can answer, you know, general questions about the the site, but uh this is really supposed to be just a pre-application conference. Um, I I think I understand what the process is. Um, I got to get in a butters list from the um uh tax assessor. I think I got to
get the um building inspector to give me a zoning determination, which I know what it's going to say. I'll uh it's going to say go to the planning board for a special permit. But other than that, I have all the other documentation and technical data. And uh my hope is to uh file this sometime before the end of
the month. And u um if we can get on an April agenda, that's fine. If not, May. And uh we'll gladly um answer the board's questions at the public hearing and the public's questions as well. So, you know, this is really just a
preliminary uh uh pre-application conference. Uh it's not supposed to be a full-blown application or anything, but be happy to answer whatever questions anyone has with respect to the process or the project. Did I lose you guys? >> I have one question. Is that near the uh
the high tension power lines that goes through East Hampton? >> Um it's it's it's right next to it. Yes. >> Yeah. And your question was how does that relate to the height of the high tension gantries versus yours?
>> Um my suspicion is is that they're about the same height. Um we the the facility we built in Ashefield I don't think it's the same line but a similar line and we were right up against the power lines as well. The power company um has dealt with these type of facilities quite um
uh regularly so they have no issue with it. Um but they'll get noticed as part of this process. Uh and uh u but I I I don't know exactly how tall those power poles are, which is why we do the visibility demonstration because it uh um it kind of depends on
your perspective. As you go farther away, they kind of look differently. So uh uh the visibility demonstration will be very u helpful to to adjust that very specifically. >> And anyone hear me now? There's a lot of echo. There's a lot of
echo. Paul, >> Paul, you got to mute one of your um mics. Both of them are on. >> How's that any better? >> Yes, sounds much better. >> All right. Um Richard, do you want to weigh in on this before the board asks
any more questions? I I think the purpose of it is just to clarify the qu uh what's required for submission and a 30,000 uh foot high view of it. Um
I would assume that he's going to demonstrate that he meets all the criteria including the two miles from nearest tower the need for it. Uh that there isn't any any availability to meet any other way. U and the board would need to determine if it wants to have a
peer review of the submission. Uh, and it's best that the board decide that as soon as possible because there's not many people that do peer reviews of cell towers. From my experience when I was work when
I worked for the town of South Hadley, I think there's only two or three firms that provide that did peer reviews and we only I think we only got proposals from two of them. One was from Maryland and one I covered the other one was
from. But so if you want the peer review uh and I did find peer review to be uh the last one in particular we did was 2015 I think 2016. It was a very
beneficial review. They actually u ended up helping the applicant as well as the town in that particular case. the uh peer reviewer demonstrated why the applicant needed a taller tower than the planning board wanted to impose and at
the same time demonstrate how they could meet certain setback requirements. So it was a very beneficial review on everybody's part even though the applicant didn't like paying for it. Um but think we've satisfied the purpose of
the uh uh pre-application uh meeting. Um, I think meeting a April meeting is going to be pretty tight because of public notice requirements.
And if the board wants a peer review, that wouldn't be ready by the uh April meeting, any April meeting. Uh, if I could respond, I actually agree with all that. It sounds like Mr. Harris has some experience in that regard. Um
he's very right. There's only a few people in the world and they probably changed since the last time uh Mr. Harris reviewed something like that. I can certainly help. I can either give you names of folks that we've worked with or probably better names of other people in your shoes, other towns that
have gone out. I know uh we were in Ashefield like uh two years ago and they required a peer review and uh uh uh and uh so I could refer you to the person that handled that at the Asheville level and get you the recommendations that
they got. So u it it's certainly you're right and uh u I I'm here to facilitate it. Richard, um, just out of curiosity, uh, what were some of the key points on the peer review that you found really
helpful? I'm just curious. >> Well, there's a lot of discussion about how to disguise a cell tower. You can put it where the antennas are inside. And one things peer reviewer comment is that if you do that, because of the tech
technical requirements for separation of antennas, it actually drove the height of the tower up. which is contrary to what people wanted to have done. Um, and he also provides some uh support for why the proposed uh
camouflage approach that the uh tower company proposed was actually beneficial and best. Um there was also question about how place it where to place it on the property and he supported the Atkins um
uh demonstration that the fall the setback was reasonable given the technology used to construct the tower. Um and um uh he definitely supported the need for the tower.
said their um demonstration need was de met professional standards and it was something we couldn't say wasn't necessary because the towers in the area were not capable of handling this
need. >> Perfect. Thank you. >> One of the things just to note you mentioned earlier that you didn't believe there was another cell tower. I believe there's one in Southampton on Route 10 north of Valley uh Road just
northeast of that corner. There's an existing tower. Uh I've lived in town for 13 year 14 12 years. 12 years. Let's call it 12. Let's go 12. And uh I was driving the other day and I totally
forgot it was even there. And I saw it and I'm like when did that go in? But then there was it preceded me moving into town. So anyway, it's well concealed for the most part, but there's one at uh Route 10 and Valley. >> I um I have all the technical data. I be
honest, I haven't even looked at it yet. Uh we get real estate folks that um uh do database research. We get radio frequency engineers that look at all that. So I have all that data. I uh I might have misspoken. Uh u but I'll I'll make sure that's included in the the the
the data that we provide. >> Great. through the chair. If you will take question from the public hearing, no objection. Um, one of the abutters is uh the division of fish and
game. Um, I know a butterscape notice, but in terms of impact, uh, I'd just suggest some proactive outreach to hear what their perspective is and, uh,
they can't do a need analysis, but they might have some ideas about location. Um, I I think it would all be constructive. It's pretty clear you're in already
disturbed area leard, but u I just wanted to put that out there as a suggestion. Uh Mr. Chair, did you want me to respond to that? This is really not a public hearing, but I'd certainly respond to it if you'd like.
Paul, we're not sure if you're um >> He's both muted again. >> He's muted in both. Okay. >> Oh, there you go. I just undid one. >> Um I'm going to respond because it's actually an easy answer. Um um as an auter
notified um so they'll be part of the uh planning board process. In addition, um these facilities are federally regulated and we get very extensive federal review um and there's very extensive environmental review that we do
independent of the um um Southampton planning board process to make sure that we have no environmental impact and it includes impact on um endangered um plant and wildlife species, Native American resources, uh,
migratory birds and all kinds of other, um, historic resources, things like that. So, there's a very independent ex and extensive federal environmental review that we do to make sure that we don't create any environmental impact. So, that'll get done as part of the permitting process.
>> Does that become an appendix that the town will see? Uh yes, the town can require it. You know, try to issue a building permit and people routinely ask for that, but it's something that we have federal uh restrictions as well. So, it's
something we can't build without making sure we comply with all the federal regulations as well. >> Can Can I be heard though? >> I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. >> A lot of lot of feedback still.
>> Yes. Oh, you just muted the other one again, so it should be good. >> How is that now? >> Better. >> Okay, I have to apologize. Um, if there's no more questions for Mr. Paresi, we'll
let him go and proceed. >> Anybody else set? >> I'm all set with them. >> All right. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Par. >> Okay. Thank you. I'm going to uh um if you're going to continue to talk about it, I'm just going to listen, but I'll
mute my screen. Thank you. >> Um there are no other questions I I assume. So, we'll wait for your application in the future. Paul, do we need to discuss the
suggestion that Rich uh Richard came or provided with respect to um the peer review? I mean, it sounds like some of some of us were in favor of that provision. >> I don't I don't think that's appropriate until the applications filed. Is that
correct, Richard? Well, you can go ahead and indicate you want to require peer review because you know the nature of the application and given the my the what how long it's taken in the past to get a peer reviewer.
It might be good idea for you going indicate you want to have that done so I can make the contacts and solicitations so we can try to have peer reviewer on board about when they submit the application. if not earlier.
>> But I didn't think any that was appropriate until such time as the application was filed by you. Well, I know we're not going to vote on this now, but um my feeling is with in light of what Richard mentioned in in
his history of having a peer review and how it's worthwhile, I think in the future when this comes before us, I would probably like to see a peer review, but I'm not sure if this is a motion or anything we can do at this point. No, but if I can have if all the
board members indicate they'd like to have a peer review of this, what I can do is I can't give the peer reviewers the specifics of the application because I don't have it, but I can also I can go ahead and identify who could do the peer
review and who's interested in doing peer review of it and then have that ready to go so we can get a price and secure them quickly when the application comes It'll put us about two to three weeks ahead of what would be otherwise.
>> All right. Given given that I'll take an informal motion to proceed with Richard's requirement. >> Do I have a motion? I'll make a motion that we It's a non-binding decision, I guess, but uh we
would like I would like to see um a peer review on this project when the application comes in. >> Second. >> The motions were made by Jim, seconded by Paul. >> All in favor? Jim.
>> Jim's I. >> Paul >> I. >> Mark. >> Mark. I >> and myself. Hi. >> Okay, Mr. Seman, we'll proceed from there and we'll wait to hear from you in the near future.
>> I appreciate that, and quite frankly, I concur with everything that Mr. Harris says. Uh um all we care about is that whoever the town retains is qualified, is reasonable in price, and uh my suspicion is they will be given the experience that Mr. Harris has. Uh um um
I I think what you guys are doing is prudent. So I I agree with all that. >> Thank you very much. >> Just to clarify, make it clear when the board selects a peer reviewer. We try to be reasonable price, but we
can't guarantee that the price is what the applicant will consider reasonable. The last project worked on that wasn't the case. But under the provisions of master general law and the third party viewer, the appeals grounds are
qualifications exper and non and not having conflict of interest. Um but we hope that it'll be a reasonable price. The last one there, the one we selected was higher than what most people would
have expected, but they also provide more services than most people would expected. Thank you, Richard. The next agenda item um is a discussion and comments by the
senior bylaw review drafted by the general bylaw committee was forwarded to you and also Richard and Richard had his list of comment
which I will forward to Christine. Does anybody have that in particular? Richard, >> I'm I'm having a very hard time hearing you again, Paul. You got two speakers on again. >> Yeah, I know.
>> Yeah. So do I. I have a hard time. >> Is this one better? >> Yes. >> Yes. Yes. >> Right. Richard, do you want to comment briefly on any of your scenic blocks? >> Richard's muted.
Let me pull it up so I can see what I comment on. Um, some of the comments you see that there's a a few words missing here and there. Uh there's also I had comments
that there's a um there need to be some clarification as what's meant in terms of um a port uh portions of the stone laws being within the right away. Um they
could word it a little bit differently that would make it clearer. Um I have no comments on the criteria or the uh uh roads are subject to the uh scene act.
Um they've got a section altering a scenic road but there's no subsections under I think that's a formatting issue with the bylaw. Um, and I had question whether or not they are suggesting that they're going to
prohibit cutting of a healthy limb if necessary to maintain the viability of utility line because apparently the only way you could cut it is if it was unhealthy. But sometimes they cut utility line just they cut tree to maintain the lines viability because
limbs are pressing on them. Um they've got detailed section of what's required in the application and question if that should be in the plainable rules and regulations. I suggest it should be and should not be in the bylaw. Um,
and they've got five criteria uh for a stone wall. And I just question whether or not they have to meet all five criteria and some clarification on some of the um criteria they have.
and they've got an incorrect reference to master and law 256 section 105 because there is no section 105 under chapter 256. 256 only has nine sections.
Um I found one paragraph on the applicability be confusing and suggested a way to make it clearer. uh doesn't actually two paragraphs that were confusing and suggested rewriting both those paragraphs
uh and concom made a comment and I suggested that they should have just a more general provision that nothing within sing road bylaw precludes require this government meeting is brought to you by Eastworks and our local cable
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