More cell towers headed to APA

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January 5, 2008

By KIM SMITH DEDAM The Press Republican Sat Jan 05, 2008, 06:34 AM EST

RAY BROOK — Adirondack Park Agency commissioners will review two more Verizon Wireless towers for the Northway next Thursday.

The towers are to be situated in Lewis and Warrensburg, each 89 feet tall, including a 10-foot lightning rod with a 12-panel array, according to the draft permits.

PROPOSED TOWERS

The Lewis tower is proposed for a 137-acre parcel on the west side of County Route 10 owned by Meadowmount School of Music. The site is about 3,000 feet from the highway corridor between exits 31 and 32, a stretch of Northway typically void of cell-phone service.

The surrounding land is zoned Resource Management in Adirondack Park land-use regulations.

Twelve trees from 54 to 84 feet tall would have to be removed from the leased area where the tower would go.

An existing road to the lot would require an extension of about 900 feet of new road, and utilities to the tower would be buried underground.

The Lewis tower would be “somewhat visible” from the Northway, Hyde Road and Stowersville Road, but it would not be visible from the Boquet River, Steele Woods Road or the Ray Woods Road.

Verizon engineers lowered the proposed height of the Lewis tower from 90 feet to 79 feet to minimize visual impact, the staff report says.

APA staff planners have deemed the tower “substantially invisible” in large part because it would be surrounded by trees set against a hillside backdrop.

The State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation reviewed the site and found the 89-foot tower would not adversely affect the historically significant Meadowmount School of Music.

The Warrensburg tower is proposed for construction on private property owned by Virginia and Martin L. Ryan.

APA staff recommended both designs for approval, with conditions.

The new towers are part of an infrastructure plan being designed by Verizon Wireless to provide complete cell-phone coverage along the Interstate 87 travel corridor by incorporating five existing towers with 13 new ones.

KEENE TOWERS

Verizon Wireless is nearing completion on plans to put two cell towers in the Town of Keene along Route 73.

Neither tower has been brought to APA staff for analysis, but town officials are hopeful the plan will begin review in the next few months.

Future Route 73 tower locations are sited near the water tower in the hamlet of Keene and near a fallen-in storage building at the Neighborhood House in Keene Valley.

Supervisor Bill Ferebee (R-Keene) said the final paperwork is being pulled together on lease agreements.

“We’re very close to completion of paperwork to be filed with APA,” he said Friday.

Lease payments at the water tower would benefit the Keene Water District. And lease payments for the tower in Keene Valley would go to the Neighborhood House.

VERIZON BUSY

Verizon spokesman John O’Malley said that, so far, four of the planned 13 new towers for the Northway corridor have been submitted for APA staff review.

“The others will be submitted individually as they are ready.”

The Keene towers, which would add coverage from the I-87 exit in Hudson along Route 73 through the Chapel Pond corridor and the Cascade pass to Lake Placid, have not been brought to the APA.