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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Thank you, Town Council, for holding the first public hearing about the West School Cell Tower on Wednesday, November 16 to discuss if the Westside of New Canaan needs improved cellular coverage. I feel grateful to the neighbors with diverse areas of expertise who came together to oppose the proposed cell tower at West School. It was evident to everyone in the room and on Zoom that the so-called-experts consulting the town were biased salespeople for Verizon and Homeland Towers. We did not hear a balanced or accurate representation of coverage needs and many residents, including myself, are appalled by the lack of factual data offered to support this proposal.
Verizon and Homeland Towers presented coverage maps that left off other carriers and painted a false story about the quality of coverage on the Westside of town. Thank you Cristina Ross and Chairman Steve Karl for calling out that the maps were skewed in Verizon’s favor. Fellow residents pointed out that the maps were inaccurate, leaving off homes in the region and noted part of the area included the Noroton River and are not densely populated.
First Selectman Kevin Moynihan continues to repeat that this tower is meant to help Westside residents, but as a fellow West School mom said, we do not want this tower built at our elementary school nor do we need it. We heard several residents attest to their ability to make emergency phone calls from their homes and one neighbor who runs seven miles a day spoke of adequate connectivity while she moves around the Westside. For those who worked from home and needed more reliable coverage, they made improvements with boosters in their home, which is technology accessible now. Moynihan and first responders used the statistic that 75% of 911 calls are made from cell phones as evidence that we need a West School cell tower. Two residents (one of whom is a New Canaan EMT) clarified that the FCC requires all carriers to route 911 calls whether or not the caller is a subscriber. Furthermore, several residents and Town Council members acknowledged that the devices we use today have vastly improved and the ability to make satellite emergency calls on the latest smartphone models will be standardized soon.
Verizon, Homeland Towers and Moynihan claim the Westside is a coverage desert but that’s a lie. As Joe Palo explained, Verizon offers one coverage map to potential subscribers at their store touting 5G and a different map that makes New Canaan look like we live in the stone ages when presenting to town officials. Hilary Ormond asked if we have information about New Canaan residents and the breakdown of carriers that residents use, which we don’t have but could be included in a new study. It’s evident that building this cell tower benefits Verizon’s coverage needs – not the residents of New Canaan.
Ormond asked the most essential question of the meeting: “What is the need?” Is this about the inconvenience of dropped calls when you are driving or not being able to stream a football game on your phone or that first responders need more reliable data transfer service? If first responders need improved cellular coverage for large file sizes such as floor plans, let’s find a smarter, quicker solution than building outdated technology that doesn’t support 5G nor is future-proofed for the advancements in cellular coverage. All the residents have a deep gratitude to our first responders. This is not an us against them situation as Moynihan wants to frame it. Please, investigate the satellite technology and FirstNet as more readily available solutions to support our first responders as soon as possible. As Tom Butterworth suggested, we can improve cellular coverage for our amazing West School staff with small cell technology. New Canaan does not need a 145-foot monopole or pine to address whatever coverage gaps that exist. Better technology is available. We need town officials who are willing to pursue solutions that fit our needs.
After wasting 40 minutes of our time, John Keating of the now defunct Centerline Solutions admitted the 2014 coverage assessment that he conducted for New Canaan is obsolete. Keating evaded all of Kim Norton’s questions, and after much hemming and hawing, he confirmed that monopole/pines are on a downward trend and that his study looked at 2G and 3G, which are irrelevant today. Moynihan said in the October 25 Planning and Zoning meeting that New Canaan did not need a new study and that he would ask Centerline to update the eight-year-old study. The update did not happen and Keating said so himself.
It’s clear that New Canaan needs a new study to 1) assess actual coverage gaps and 2) recommend what technology would improve cellular coverage given our town’s topography. It’s insulting that Homeland Towers and Verizon get top billing as “experts” when they profit if we go with a monopole/pine tower solution. It is an egregious lack of due diligence if the Town Council accepts a sales pitch instead of hiring an unbiased third party to assess our coverage needs and offer up-to-date solutions. If I got a quote for a home renovation in 2014, I would need to get new estimates that reflect the current market. This is common sense and our town must make decisions based on solid factual data.
When Rita Bettino asked if the antennas on the Waveny tower were the same as the ones that would be at the West School tower, Moynihan answered yes. I implore all Town Council members to do their own homework about the number of carriers, the frequencies in which they work and which age groups are most affected by RF radiation. It’s clear that Moynihan is an advocate for Verizon and Homeland Towers – he submitted the P&Z application on their behalf. He is biased and must recuse himself if asked to vote on the topic. He resurrected plans for the West School cell tower even after it was defeated in 2017 and is not representing us – the so-called beneficiaries of improved coverage. I do not understand his reluctance to other possible solutions. Moynihan is not prioritizing what’s best for New Canaan, and his insistence that a 145-foot monopole/pine at West as the only solution is wrong.
Thank you for listening to residents and scheduling additional meetings about the West School cell tower with the next meeting on Wednesday, December 7 about health effects of RF radiation on young children. As our elected Town Council, we are depending on you to ask the tough questions and find the best solutions for the community. I appreciate the Town Council members who looked at the “so-called” facts presented by Verizon and Homeland Towers through a critical lens. I encourage all members of the Town Council to make their decisions on unbiased information. If you need more information, issue a new cell coverage study as P&Z recommended.
As of today, more than 700 New Canaan residents signed a petition against the West School cell tower. https://chng.it/ZJzVP78w9G.
Your decision will affect generations of Westside kids. Please, put our kids first.
Thank you,
Mai Dinh
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Since October 19, I have sent four emails to the chairs of the Planning and Zoning Commission and Town Council, as well as to members of the Planning and Zoning Commission, members of the Town Council and the First Selectman. I called their attention to the wrongful statement in Mr. Bloom’s memo, that P&Z has no jurisdiction to issue a special permit because that authority belongs to the Connecticut Siting Council. I provided you with a statement on November 3rd from the Executive Director of the Connecticut Siting Council which totally contradicts Mr. Bloom’s memo:
“The Siting Council does not regulate the municipal decision process to lease land owned by the municipality for the purposes of siting a cell tower.”
Not one of the 24 New Canaan government officials has responded to my emails, challenged them or proposed a remedy.
Further, the misinformation Mr. Bloom gave to P&Z caused it to suspend and ignore New Canaan Zoning Regulation 7.8E, which requires a special permit for the Homeland Towers cell tower application at West School. When P&Z ignored the special permit requirement and proceeded to vote on the 8-24 report it violated town ordinance C4-10 which requires two weeks of public notice and a vote of the Town Council before an ordinance can be suspended. These two actions make the 8-24 report P&Z produced invalid.
I have also provided this information to the Town Council at the Public Hearing on November 16th. Once again, there was no response, no challenge and no effort to provide a remedy.
New Canaan residents are entitled to protections provided by the special permit requirements in Section 7.8E, entitled to the protections provided by ordinance C4-10 for adequate public notice and approval by the Town Council.
I call upon you to reject the wrongfully developed and invalid 8-24 report and direct P&Z to only issue an 8-24 report after all of the requirements of state law and local ordinances, including a special permit, have been met.
Joseph Palo