Join Us Dec 27 to Urge Warren Select Board to Strengthen Regs Governing Cell Tower Development
Tomorrow evening, December 27, there is a Warren Select Board meeting at 6:30 pm which will include an update on the proposed Verizon cell tower. Please consider attending in person or by Zoom (link below) to impress upon the Select Board how strongly Warren constituents feel about this issue. As is customary, there will be an open comment session at the beginning of the meeting. Concerned citizens intend to use this time to urge the Select Board to act on our petition and issue a notice of a meeting on the proposed Land Use and Development Regulations (LUDRs) before the end of the year. As a reminder, here is an update on where things stand with respect to the proposed Verizon cell tower:
The Town of Warren Planning Commission recently prepared an amendment to the Town's zoning bylaw and submitted the new proposed Land Use and Development Regulations (LUDRs) to the Selectboard to hold a public hearing and vote on the proposed regulations.
However, instead of improving and strengthening the outdated protections governing telecommunications facilities, the proposed LUDRs strip away all existing protections regulating the development of cell towers in the Town and fail to provide for the current customary protections put in place by a number of other Vermont towns such as Shelburne, Mendon, Ludlow, Duxbury, Townsend, Calais, Dover, Wilmington, Guilford, Rutland, and Brookline.
By way of example, the proposed LUDRs would permit a cell tower to be erected in the Village with no height limitation at all. Thus, it is imperative that the proposed amendment be revised before it is voted on by the Selectboard, to ensure the protection of the Town's aesthetics and scenic and natural beauty.
Verizon Wireless has currently noticed its intention to file an application with the Public Utility Commission on or after December 30, 2022, to erect a 140-foot cell phone tower in the heart of the Mad River Valley on Airport Road in Warren. The tower is proposed for a prominent hilltop in the middle of a rural residential district that consists of forests, farms, upland meadows, and residential homes. The cell tower would be located just 200 feet from the property line of one neighbor and less than a mile from the Warren Airport. Rising 70 feet above the tree line, the proposed tower would be highly visible throughout the Valley.
Therefore, it is critically important that the Warren Selectboard issue public notice of the first hearing on the amended LUDRs and that such notice is publicly posted on or before December 29, 2022, to ensure that the Verizon Wireless tower application will be subject to the Town's review and recommendation based upon the new LUDRs, once the Selectboard holds its hearings, revises the document and enacts it into law.
The Zoom details are below so please join for a few minutes at 6:30 if you can.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84055335642?pwd=UWtnQ0tBM21ORUttYy9seUYxdStCZz09
Meeting ID: 840 5533 5642
Passcode: 639240
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,84055335642#,,,,*639240# US (Washington DC)
+13052241968,,84055335642#,,,,*639240# US
If you haven't already done so, please consider adding your name and address to the petition and forward to others whom you know who are similarly concerned about these issues. You may sign here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NibemyRM8KHDkWr9QMpCAGwEaNx35Z4S/edit?usp=sharing&ou[...]rue
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