Around Town

Verizon Coming To Soundview Lane Cell Tower

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A cell tower that went up about three years ago in northeastern New Canaan this week received transmission equipment from a popular carrier. Verizon installed its equipment on the Soundview Lane “monopine” tower on Monday and Tuesday, according to property owner Keith Richey. AT&T has been on the tower for more than one year, Richey said, though the overwhelming majority of New Canaan mobile device users appear to be Verizon customers. “Now they will finally see a benefit from having this tower,” he told NewCanaanite.com. 

The addition of Verizon service is expected to fulfill the promise of the tower at the dead-end of Soundview, overlooking St. Luke’s School, to finally bring coverage to the northeast quadrant of town.

Government

Cell Tower Developer: We Can Present Two Possible West School Locations to the State

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A cell tower developer said last week that, with the town’s support, he could present state officials with two locations for erecting monopoles behind West School if his own preferred location is, in fact, “off the table” as New Canaan’s legislative body has asserted. Homeland Towers Regional Manager Ray Vergati told members of the Board of Selectmen during their March 21 meeting that he still would prefer to go with what’s known as “Option A” for the new tower serving the west side of town (about 900 feet behind West School and 600 feet from its playing fields). Two alternative tower locations deeper into the woods behind the school, toward Llewelyn Drive and Carriage Lane—dubbed “Option B” and “Option C”—would need to be even taller towers to make up for a loss in elevation, and the latter may well trigger concerns about environmental impact because of designated wetlands. “Look, do I want to be in [Option] B and C? No,” Vergati said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference.

Board of Selectmen

Cell Tower Developer: ‘There Is Some Urgency’ with West School Proposal

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A representative from the company that’s been working with the town on a plan to install a cell tower behind West School said Tuesday that a carrier has been waiting for several months for a lease to be signed there so that the project can move forward. Ray Vergati, a regional manager with Homeland Towers, told the three members of the Board of Selectmen during their regular meeting that “there is some urgency” with the recently disclosed plans for 769 Ponus Ridge, the 47.4-acre town-owned property where West School is located. 

“Urgency in the sense that we have been waiting patiently for seven years and we have a carrier that’s funded,” Vergati said during the meeting, held at Town Hall and via videoconference. “We don’t want to lose the funding with the carrier. So that’s our sense of urgency, in the sense that we want to keep this moving forward. But this is not an overnight process.”

He added: “Maybe ‘urgency’ is my personal word I’m using.

Board of Selectmen

‘I’m Very Pleased To Get To This Point’: Moynihan Announces Plan for Cell Tower in Northwestern New Canaan 

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In a major step toward improved cell service in northwestern New Canaan, the Board of Selectmen on Tuesday voted 3-0 to approve a license agreement with a wireless infrastructure company to bring a cell tower to a wooded 5.16-acre parcel on upper Ponus Ridge. The combined public safety and cell tower is to be sited on the east side of Ponus Ridge at number 1837, a hilly property located just north of Dan’s Highway that overlooks the Laurel Reservoir. New Canaan itself qualifies as a “carrier” for the public safety portion of the tower, and plans call for a traditional carrier such as Verizon or AT&T to commit to the project for when Danbury-based Homeland Towers files an application with the state agency that oversees telecom towers. Given the detail needed for that application, it’s likely six or more months away, according to First Selectman Kevin Moynihan. 

“It was a challenge with COVID last year to move this forward,” Moynihan said during the selectmen meeting, held via videoconference. “I’m very pleased to get this point.”

New Canaan has grappled for years with a lack of cell service in several parts of town, perhaps most notably in the northwestern and northeastern areas.