Letters to the Editor

NewCanaanite.com recently received the following letter(s) to the editor. Please send letters to editor@newcanaanite.com for publication here.

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I am deeply dismayed that New Canaan leadership is considering a cell tower at West School.

While many families are away for summer break, it is disgraceful that our First Selectman is trying to push through a lease with Homeland Towers, within a matter of weeks. As many of us know, once the town of New Canaan signs that lease, Homeland Towers becomes the landlord. At that point, the only say residents and parents will have is to pick the height of the fence and surrounding bushes! There would be no health discussion per the 1996 Telecommunications Act, which says a tower can’t be denied for health or aesthetic reasons. In short, any debate on this West School tower and any concerns of West School families (many of whom are new to New Canaan since 2017 when this issue was raised) would become meaningless.

Why is our First Selectman, an elected official, trying to cut off input from tax-paying residents? Why are we learning about the “urgency” to move this project forward in the middle of summer break, especially since renderings show that Homeland Towers has been working on a revised West School tower project since at least February 2022?

I would also like to know why Homeland Towers is listing on their website both West School and Irwin Park among the “Locations” in which they have towers. I’ve included a screenshot from their website, showing both addresses listed. As we all know, per a statement by Homeland Towers in the Newcanaanite, they have said that they don’t share tower sites in development: “As a matter of confidentiality, Homeland does not typically share sites that are being considered for future development.”  Why then is it listing West School and Irwin Park? Does it consider these sites done deals? Who from the town of New Canaan is offering them such assurance that it feels confident enough to list these sites? And since when is Irwin Park back on the table? Or perhaps Homeland Towers is being presumptuous in listing West School and Irwin among its “Locations?” If the latter is true then it is underhanded to trade on New Canaan’s name to bolster its “Location” list and its credibility.

Thank you Kathleen Corbet and Nick Williams for encouraging community input. I hope you and members of the Board of Finance will not give in to the insincere cries of “urgency” and that you will not approve the lease before further discussion can happen in September. While Ray Vergati belly-ached about “patiently” waiting for approval, New Canaan parents like me are desperately waiting for real leadership.

Vanessa Lowry