The Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals’ decision regarding granting a special permit for a 190-foot, monopole-style telecommunications tower facility on High Street will have to wait a little while longer.
Industrial Tower and Wireless LLC seeks a special permit to reduce the required setback distance of 200 feet from other property lines by 50 percent or to 100 feet. The project’s representatives have argued in the hearing that the tower would sit on land owned by A.D. Makepeace, and the closest adjacent property would be 521 feet away.
Attorney Donald Nagle, who represents 19 of the proposed tower’s neighbors and has given the Zoning Board of Appeals a petition signed by 54 neighbors voicing their opposition, has argued the tower would constitute an industrial use of a residential neighborhood and that the petitioner’s setback request doesn’t comply with town bylaws.
The zoning panel on April 28 reopened its hearing into the permit request in order to review more public-comment correspondence on the issue, and it ended with a vote to continue the decision until Wednesday, May 4, at 7:30 pm.
The board decided that for the May 4 meeting two draft decisions will be submitted by Town Counsel Blair Bailey for the panel to choose from, one based on a yes-vote decision and the other based on a no-vote determination.
Bailey said he has a draft decision ready. The board said they prefer having draft decision(s) in front of them before they take their final vote. Bailey agreed to prepare two decisions covering both vote directions.
In other action, the board swiftly approved a variance request from Greenwood “Woody” Hartley and Sharon Hartley, who were appealing the requirement that the minimum lot size be 30 percent of the existing living space because of their proposal to expand their home lot, 149 Marion Road, into a multifamily dwelling with an attached garage.
Woody Hartley successfully argued a first-floor living space will be easier for them as they grow older. They will reside in the attached garage, and their adult daughter who is moving back home, will live in the main two-story house.
Woody Hartley is a member of the Rochester Select Board, and Sharon Hartley his wife, is a member of the Rochester and Joint School committees.
The Zoning Board’s next meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 4, at 7:00 pm.
Rochester Zoning Board of Appeals
By Michael J. DeCicco