[mcdude]

Results of the October 10 Planning Board Meeting.....

The Baysider

.....The news was both good and bad for the applicants, with the Planning Board members finding that the Roberts Knoll site, on Route 28, had little visual impact, while the Miramichie Hill site, on East Side Drive, was visible from many viewsheds, especially from Lake Winnipesaukee.

Planning board member Jeanne Crouse said there was "no way to enter or exit Alton Bay" and not plainly see the balloons on Miramichie Hill.

But the impact on the viewshed wasn't the only thing Planning Board members took issue with. They were unanimous in finding that the applicants did not investigate the possibility of a network of smaller towers to provide adequate coverage, and the board also found that the applicants failed to make adequate inquiries to local property owners to compile a list of possible sites. Both of those complaints, and the fact that both proposed towers exceed the limit of 10 feet above the average tree canopy, and that the Miramichie tower negatively affects the viewshed, all violate the town's new telecommunications ordinance.

Planning Board Chairman Jeremy Dube said the "spirit" of the new ordinance is for the town to have coverage, but for that coverage to be achieved by many shorter towers, instead of a few taller towers.

Planning Board Member Tom Hoopes elaborated, saying the ordinance seeks to "make facilities available all over town, as long as they are invisible."

Donald Cody, director of operations for Industrial Communications, said he was "willing to work" with the town on disguising the towers as trees, but he wasn't as excited about continuing to pursue other locations, or the possibility of using more numerous, but shorter, towers in place of the two 120-foot towers he has planned. "The by-law asks that we notify potential sites within the area. We have done that. We have looked at alternative sites, there simply aren't any alternative sites," Cody said.

After the meeting on Oct. 10, the boards weren't sure what to do next. The Planning Board made its findings, but was counseled by the town attorney Mark Sessler to not deny the site plan yet, but simply table the discussion until the Zoning Board of Adjustment could look at the applications. However, ZBA member Timothy Kinnon noted that, until the Planning Board has formally denied a site plan, the ZBA has no legal framework to address the case.

"This whole thing is weird – it's all Attorney Sessler's weaving," Dube said.

The Planning Board voted to continue the meeting until it could gather more explicit directions from Sessler.