The Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) has nearly worked out a compromise with Verizon regarding the company’s request for a new cell tower at 12 Woodchuck Hill Road. Verizon attorney Chris Swiniarski and Harvard Town Counsel Mark Lanza attended the board’s Nov. 18 meeting to work out a solution that would be acceptable to all parties: to build a new tower at the proposed location but limit its height to 120 feet.
The originally proposed tower height was 160 feet, which exceeds the 105-foot maximum height allowed by Harvard’s cell tower bylaw. The property already has an obsolete 130-foot tower, which Swiniarski claimed Verizon would remove at some point after the new tower is constructed.
According to Swiniarski, a 120-foot tower is tall enough to reach over the nearby 102-foot treetops and grant sufficient coverage of the surrounding area. Verizon had been insisting on a 160-foot tower because the company has long-term contracts with other cell providers to allow them to co-locate on Verizon’s towers. It is possible to extend towers to accommodate more providers, and Verizon wanted to construct the tower now at its full eventual height so the company could install its own equipment at the highest (best) position.
While Swiniarski is not able to sign away Verizon’s contractual obligation to allow tower extension, he said the ZBA could block it by recording an official finding that limiting the tower’s height to 120 feet is important for reducing its visibility. Lanza agreed that this idea would be legally binding.
ZBA members seemed amenable to the compromise, but they did not commit to it. They ended the meeting by entering executive session for private discussion on the matter. They said that before proceeding with the compromise, they would need to find out whether the Select Board would be willing to allow the tower to be located on town-owned land at either Hildreth House or the Bolton Road water tank.
Swiniarski reluctantly agreed to grant the ZBA an extension until Dec 17. The ZBA next meets Dec 16, when members expect to make a final decision on the matter.
