Cell towers are coming, but how to control them?

Like many other towns in the area and across the country, the Town of Tusten is considering what to do about cell towers. Tusten, and other towns along the Delaware, faced with the erection of cell towers, are being asked to take a stance about their construction within the boundaries of the town.

Wireless communication technology is inevitable, we are being told.

There are a number of “dead spots” along the valley where cellular phones do not work, because they are out of the range of already erected towers in Sullivan, Wayne and Pike Counties. Recently, the issue came up in the Pennsylvania townships of Damascus and Shohola, where the town boards are in the midst of a struggle between those who want towers and those who do not.

At a Damascus Township meeting on the subject six weeks ago, a representative of a tower company flatly told the residents, “they [the town board] can’t do much to stop [the towers].” The same representative then told the audience that the village of Hawley was successful in stopping a tower. “Let’s do what Hawley did,” a resident shouted. The tower rep said that the company backed away when it saw the amount of opposition it was facing.

Whether other towns can follow the example of Hawley will depend on the firmness of a tower company’s resolve to get its tower.

If the zoning allows it, the only thing a town can do is regulate where, when and how.

“As it stands now, our zoning in R-1 allows cell towers without a special use permit,” said Tusten supervisor Dick Crandall at a recent public hearing. Steve and Angela Daley, owners of Steve’s Country Store and the Whistlestop Cafe, asked for the hearing to consider allowing a tower in R-2 where they have 90 acres. Erecting a tower in an R-2 zoning district (involving Lava and Beaver Brook) requires a special use permit.

No one at the meeting voiced opposition to the placement of a tower far back on the Daleys’ property, where it couldn’t easily be seen. “No one has a problem with [the Daleys’] tower,” said resident Tony Staffieri. “It’s the next tower that worries us.”

The potential for a proliferation of towers is the problem, many at the meeting said.

So, what is a town to do? How many towers will it allow? How many towers are needed in a relatively small area like Tusten?

Scenic Hudson, a group in the Hudson Valley, said communities have the ability to respond imaginatively to the cellular explosion. And according to Half Moon Press, “Just a few of the options available are: shared use of existing towers among companies, citing of towers off ridge lines and where they will be visually least detrimental, camouflaging them by adding them to existing buildings or disguising them as trees.”

Tusten might consider some of these strategies. It should also ask tower companies exactly how many towers are needed to do the job. Have the town mapped topographically to show the most efficient placement—away from people’s homes and from areas where towers can be seen.

Cell towers are coming. It’s up to the town board to see that proliferation doesn’t happen and that towers are placed in the most unobtrusive places.

Tom Kane, Staff Writer