Zoning board grants Webster North tower height variance, tables Lake Road

Webster's Zoning Board of Appeals granted Verizon a height variance for its Webster North cell tower Tuesday, Oct. 13. The board tabled the Lake Road tower to its Nov. 17 meeting.

Here is how the agenda came out:

• Webster North tower: variance granted for a 135-foot tower near 1222 Wildflower Drive.
• Lake Road tower: tabled to Nov. 17 at Verizon's request.
• Olive Garden sign: variance granted for a 71.6-square-foot wall sign at 931 Holt Road.
• Fence: variance granted, with a condition, for a 6-foot privacy fence on a corner lot on Hills Pond Road.
• Interpretation: no vote. The applicant, on Lake Road, is expected to return with a variance application.
• Chickens: tabled, because no one appeared for the applicant on Lake Road.
• Minutes: the Sept. 8 minutes were approved.

The interpretation and chickens requests are separate from the Verizon tower at Lake Road and County Line Road.

Webster North

The board granted the variance on a roll call. The variance covers a 135-foot tower with a 4-foot lightning rod, 139 feet in all. The site is a 14.2-acre parcel in the R-3 district. The maximum height allowed for a communication tower in Webster is 100 feet.

Before that vote, the board classified the application as an unlisted action under State Environmental Quality Review and adopted a negative declaration. In answer to a member's question, the board was told the variance is specific to this tower at this location. Another tower would need to come back before the board.

The board closed public comment on both towers Sept. 8 and tabled both to this meeting. The board said comment stays closed, including at the Nov. 17 meeting. A board member said they had read everything submitted online.

The board was shown photos a neighbor emailed of Verizon's Sept. 11 drone flight. A speaker at the dais said that, while the photos gave a good visual reference, they did not show whether the drone was at full height or on its way up or down.

The antennas would be centered at 130 feet. Laura Smith, Verizon's attorney, said of that height: "That is the lowest it can go." Smith said designs with antennas at 111 and 91 feet both materially compromised coverage because of the mature trees around the site, which Smith put at about 110 feet.

Smith also said Verizon's analysis of the Webster Presbyterian Church site, raised at the Sept. 8 meeting, found a tower there would not cover the western and central parts of the area Verizon wants to serve.

William Johnson of RF Engineering Consultants, the town's radio-frequency consultant, told the board the firm's own review found that "moving the site to the church location was not optimal." Johnson said neither the town nor Verizon has found another workable site with a willing landowner. Johnson was asked whether anything short of one tower or several could cover the area Verizon needs to serve. "Not that I'm aware of," Johnson said. The answer excepted the mitigation options described earlier in the meeting, such as color matching.

Johnson also told the board that under federal rules, another carrier could later add height to an approved tower, possibly "another 10 or 20 feet." Johnson said that can happen only once. Members said this was new information to them. One member said the tower is already well above what the town code allows and called that possibility a concern. The member also said they were not opposed to 135 feet at that point. Johnson said the possibility of added height was "really not something that should change your decision today."

John DeMarco, the board's attorney, said Verizon could challenge a denial in court. In that case, DeMarco said, it was "highly unlikely the board would be successful." Asked later what would follow a denial, DeMarco said a challenge would turn on whether the record held technical support for the denial, such as evidence of workable alternatives to the tower's location and height.

Smith said Verizon would model several shorter towers if the board's vote hinged on that analysis. One member suggested at least asking Verizon to look at multiple sites and did not press the point. Members said several sites would put towers in more neighborhoods, and one member said each would still stand above the tree line. One member said they were not happy about the tower and that the board had what it needed. Asked whether they were ready to act, members said yes.

Findings read before the vote said the tower will rise above the tree line and affect the neighborhood's character. The findings also said the visual impact is concentrated in a small area and that several sites would be worse.

The Planning Board gave Webster North preliminary site plan approval at its Oct. 6 meeting.

Lake Road

At Verizon's request, the board tabled the Lake Road tower to Nov. 17. The tower would stand 125 feet at Lake Road and County Line Road, plus a 4-foot lightning rod, for 129 feet in all.

The other four items

Olive Garden sign. The board granted a variance for a 71.6-square-foot wall sign on the north side of the former UNO building at 931 Holt Road. A board member noted that the building's other sides already have approved signage. Chairman Michael Short, Christopher Centola, John Accorso, Corrine Volo and James Spampinato voted yes.

Fence. The board granted an area variance for a 6-foot privacy fence in the front yard of a corner lot on Hills Pond Road. The condition is that the fence's corner can come no farther forward than the front of the neighboring house. The applicant agreed to that limit at the hearing.

Interpretation. An applicant on Lake Road asked whether an accessory structure can exceed 2,500 square feet under Section 350-36A(3) of the town code. The board took no vote. DeMarco advised that the zoning board can grant a variance from the 2,500-square-foot cap, citing Town Law Section 267-b. The request had not been advertised as a variance, so the applicant is expected to return with a variance application.

Chickens. The special use permit request for a backyard coop and run on Lake Road was tabled because no one appeared for the applicant. The motion set no new date.

What's next

• Oct. 27: the submission deadline for the board's Nov. 17 meeting. To be heard Nov. 17, the interpretation applicant's variance application is due by then. If the applicant moves ahead by Oct. 27, the chickens request could also be heard Nov. 17, according to guidance given at the meeting.
• Nov. 10: Lake Road is back before the Planning Board, which tabled it to that meeting.
• Nov. 17: the Lake Road tower returns to the zoning board, with public comment still closed.
• Nov. 20: the extended federal shot clock on both towers ends. Verizon agreed to the extension in letters dated Sept. 29, including the Lake Road letter. The shot clock is the federal deadline for the town to act on each application.

The town's recording of the meeting is on YouTube. The Ledger's preview has background on each application. The Ledger's zoning board explainer covers how variances and interpretations work.

AI tools were used in drafting and research.