02/13/2019 ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS Minutes

Home Browse Search

MASHPEE ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS MEETING MINUTES FEBRUARY 13,2019 One request was that a rendering of a mono pine or big tree be seen esthetically at the location. A second request was that it is shown that the pole be a light blue or alight grey as other options. The applicant would accept the preference given to them by the Town of Mashpee. The Cape Cod Commission did not want to make a determination on that. It's very subjective; it's a galvanized steel tower,and some say it should look like a steel tower, and some locations want an alternative that might be preferable to their jurisdiction. On one plan provided, the blue area is actually where the vendor drove the roads that show where the tower would be visible. The red locations are photo locations where the tower is not visible and are numbered to correspond with the photos taken. The Attorney provided several photos that depicted areas where the pole was either visible or not visible. She said that the Cape Cod Commission wanted tests taken at 150 ft. and 125 ft. to see if this had a big impact on the visibility of the tower which they concluded is not an impact. Under the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, the Massachusetts criteria for a Variance is not controlling. It has its own basis for consideration of a Variance. In this case, under the case law, if a significant gap in wireless coverage can be shown and there are no feasible alternatives, the first circuit court ruled that a Zoning Board is required to issue whatever zoning is necessary to bring that coverage to the area of the gap. The FCC has very recently in January clarified what it means to bring an effective prohibition even further. They stated that an effective prohibition is if it materially inhibits a carrier from bringing services. They made this ruling because the market place is changing. There are not only phone calls being made, there's data streaming. The existing towers are overloaded, and the footprints are shrinking. The radio frequency engineers, and the FCC will tell you that the exiting towers are putting an increase on demand and there's a need to bring in these new services. There are two carriers present to explain that this site is essential to their network to bring coverage and capacity to this area of south Mashpee, and for those reasons a Variance is required under the criteria. Mr.Dan Brown,RF Engineering with C2 Systems on behalf of Verizon Wireless addressed the Board and presented the coverage plots of the south Mashpee area. The first plot depicted a map taken with 700 megahertz. The black symbols on the map show the current location of the Verizon existing facilities. The blue symbol showed the proposed facility. Verizon is planning to install their equipment on the proposed tower to fill up the significant gap and provide additional network capacity to the area. The green shown on the map shows the current area where Verizon now provides their services. The white area shows the areas with lesser coverage. The next map depicted the areas that will fill the significant gaps,and provide essential coverage to the area which will cover 4 square miles, and will be extended along about 1.5 miles from Red Brook Road, 2.2 miles on Great Oak Road, and Great Neck Road, 1 mile along Monomoscoy Road, and .6 miles along Rock Landing Road, and the surrounding residential area. 4