CONSERVATION COMMISSION
Town of Monterey, Massachusetts
MEETING DATE: 8/9/11
Present: Richard Andrus, Timothy Lovett, David Dempsey, Christopher Blair and Betty Pixley
The meeting convened at 6:00p.m.
Lombardo – 62 Worth Lane – RDA – Remove shed and construct a new one (C. Blair is the project manager)
Jeff Lombardo was present to review the project with the Commission. The shed is old and falling down and is located about 12 feet from the water line. Nick Disantis is the contractor and a dumpster will be on site. The shed will be the same size and in the same location. The Commission approved the project as submitted as a N3 subject to the following condition: silt fence needs to be installed. The Commission informed Mr. Lombardo that a building permit might need to be applied for and any questions regarding that should be directed to Don Torrico.
For Discussion:
1. Mail was reviewed which included:
a. Deposition subpoenas for David Dempsey, Christopher Blair and Melissa Noe.
2. Minutes from 7.12.11 were approved as written.
3. Chris Tryon came in with a Conservation Commission related filing question regarding the ability to withdraw a RDA that has been filed in another town.
4. The Commission reviewed and discussed the cell tower special permit applications for 31 Main Rd and 73 Chestnut Hill Rd and compiled their comments to the ZBA. With regards to the 31 Main Rd permit the Commission had the following comments:
1. The roadway to this tower is very troublesome. It may fall through all the other permitting cycles because it is a road, except for you at the ZBA. We think we have jurisdiction over activity above 1,500 ft in elevation. It appears that this road may be very under-engineered. In comparison to the 73 Chestnut Hill Rd tower drawings, the water management does not appear to be of the type required for preventing severe wash out:
a. It does not distribute the water away from the roadway and dissipate the energy accumulated by running down the "gutter of the road".
b. It may become the water-slide of Monterey. We don't want the mountain coming down into Mr. Buonous' house. A site visit to a similar road, already constructed, to serve an already installed tower, possibly 2 or 3 years old, would be a good idea for the Conservation Commission.
2. At least one member of the commission thinks the properly colored monopole would be far, far less intrusive than a “simulated pine tree”. We just do not have 160’ pine trees here.
3. At least one member of the commission recommends ZBA members viewing towers in Otis, Winsted, CT and Colebrook, CT.
4. We believe it may be possible to push the monopole further back from the edge as a way to reduce the visibility from Lake Buel.
5. From the balloon test we see the tower will be highly visible from Lake Buel and the Lake Buel boat ramp.
6. We believe the tower can be shortened. If each antenna array is about 10 vertical feet then the use of (4) arrays, one for a different carrier, the tower could support (4) carriers. By our rough calculation the 160 foot tower could come down to 125 feet.
7. We believe the monopole construction project will need a building permit (tower, machine cabins), so we believe the project will have to be permitted through the Conservation Commission under the Scenic Mountain Act.
We have other informational and procedural questions to ask of Town Counsel but they do not represent comments we would make to the ZBA.
Meeting adjourned at 8:30pm
Submitted by: Melissa Noe, Inter-Departmental Secretary
cc: Conservation Commission Board Members
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