Both Verizon towers go to a public hearing Tuesday. It's the Planning Board's first on either one.

Both of Verizon's proposed Webster cell towers go before the Planning Board Tuesday night, and each one is scheduled for a public hearing.

The board meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Town Board Room at 1002 Ridge Road. Eight numbered items are on the agenda, along with approval of the Aug. 4 minutes. The applicant on both towers is Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems LLC, doing business as Verizon. The agenda lists Robert Burgdorf as the applicant's agent on both. Both applications are listed under tabled matters, and both ask for preliminary site plan approval.

Tabled matters is the part of the agenda for applications the board has taken up before and is returning to. The board can act on an application at one of these hearings or table it again.

The third public hearing Tuesday is on a 15,000-square-foot one-story addition to an existing 11,000-square-foot building at 764 Ridge Road.

Tuesday is the Planning Board's first hearing on either tower

Each application has been before the Planning Board once, and both of those meetings were sketch plan reviews. The Lake Road tower had its review March 3. The Wildflower Drive tower had its review May 5. A sketch plan review is informational. The board asks the applicant for materials and raises concerns, and it takes no vote on the application.

Tuesday is the first public hearing the Planning Board has scheduled on either tower. Neither application appeared on the board's June 2, July 7 or Aug. 4 agendas.

What preliminary site plan approval is

Tuesday's tower hearings are on preliminary site plan approval. That is not final site plan approval, and it is not the special use permit the town code also requires.

Under the town code, a communications tower in the R-3 district or the LL district needs two separate approvals. The Town Board issues the special use permit. The Planning Board grants final site plan approval. Section 130-8 requires both.

Each tower carries at least two public hearings. Tuesday's Planning Board hearing is not the last one. The Town Board holds another hearing on each tower later. Under Section 130-11B, the Town Board has 62 days to hold it. The 62 days start once the Town Board has both the Planning Board's recommendation and the Planning Board's final site plan approval.

The Lake Road tower

The Lake Road tower would go on land of Windmill Farms LLC, near the southwest corner of Lake Road and Monroe-Wayne County Line Road. The parcel is 7.8 acres in the LL Large-Lot Residential District. The tax parcel number is 037.03-1-44.

The tower would be a 125-foot monopole standing 129 feet overall with a four-foot lightning rod. The lease area is 100 by 100 feet. The tower is designed to carry three carriers.

The board recorded two requests to the applicant in the results of the March 3 sketch plan review. It asked Verizon to evaluate alternative locations on the same property farther west of County Line Road. It also asked Verizon to consider whether the portion of the property that lies in Wayne County is suitable for the tower.

The Wildflower Drive tower

The Wildflower Drive tower would go on a 14.2-acre parcel in the R-3 Single Family Residential District. The agenda gives the location as 1222 Wildflower Drive. The town's July 24 engineering review describes the site as private land near that address. The tax parcel number is 065.05-1-48.

The July 24 review puts the lease area at 80 by 125 feet and the fenced compound at roughly 34 by 77 feet. This tower is also designed to carry three carriers.

The July 24 review describes a 135-foot monopole standing 139 feet overall with a four-foot lightning rod. The agenda lists 125 feet. The Planning Board confirmed on the record in May that the tower is 135 feet and that the 125-foot figure on the board's agenda was a mistake.

The height limit and the variance

Chapter 130 of the town code sets a maximum height of 100 feet for communications towers, measured from the ground surface immediately surrounding the site. That figure includes antennas, extensions and any other device that extends above the tower. The cap sits in the chapter itself and is not a rule of either zoning district. A tower that cannot meet that cap needs an area variance under Section 130-24. Verizon has filed an area-variance exhibit with both applications.

The town's own reviews are on file

The town retained its own radio-frequency engineers on both applications. William P. Johnson and Steven M. Ciccarelli of RF Engineering Consultants of Rochester filed preliminary radio-frequency site reviews with the Planning Board. The Wildflower Drive review is dated July 24, 2026. The Lake Road review is dated Aug. 3, 2026. Both are addressed to Josh Artuso, the town's Director of Community Development. Both are posted with Tuesday's agenda.

What the board can and cannot consider

The town code says federal law prohibits the regulation of cellular and personal communication service towers on the basis of the environmental effects of radio-frequency emissions, where those emissions comply with FCC standards. Section 130-12F cites Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.

Section 130-12C says shared use of an existing tower is preferred to building a new one. The section requires an applicant to document good-faith efforts to co-locate.

Section 130-12E(2) requires the base of a tower to sit at least its own height from any property line. Where the underlying district requires a larger setback, the district minimum governs.

How to be heard

Residents can speak at each of the three hearings. The Planning Board meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Town Board Room at 1002 Ridge Road.

Section 130-23 sets two notice rules. A legal notice runs in the town's official newspaper at least five days before a hearing. The applicant has to post a sign the town provides at least 10 days before the hearing and keep it up through the hearing date. The sign goes in a conspicuous place at or in front of the front property line.

The town code does not require the town to mail notice of these hearings to nearby property owners.

Previously in the Ledger: The week ahead in Webster: school starts Wednesday, three hearings Tuesday (Aug. 28) carries the full eight-item agenda. Verizon cell tower at 1222 Wildflower Drive goes before the Planning Board tonight (May 5) covers the Wildflower application's history and the code path it follows. Webster Planning Board orders outside review of 135-foot Verizon tower (May 6) covers the board's confirmation of the 135-foot height.

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