Verizon has located a new site for a 186-foot wireless telecommunications tower in South Norfolk and will hold an informational meeting for the public on Wednesday, March 26, at 7:00 p.m. at Botelle School.
A set of documents describing the project is available here.
Cellco Partnerhsip, doing business as Verizon, will present the application to the Connecticut Siting Council. A letter to First Selectman Matt Riiska from Cellco’s attorneys, Robinson & Cole LLP, said the new facility “will provide improved wireless service in the southern portions of Norfolk and northern portions of Goshen.” There is currently no signal from just south of the village center to the Burrville section of Torrington.
The land, part of a 40-acre parcel, is located at 78 Goshen East Street and is owned by Paul Chapinsky Sr. The tower, proposed for the western corner of his land, would be accessed by a 940-foot dirt road off Estey Road. A 73-foot-by-73-foot fenced compound would surround equipment including battery cabinets, a propane-fueled generator and a 1,000-gallon propane tank.
While local zoning has little control over the placement of telecommunication towers, the Town of Norfolk can choose to become an intervenor in the proceeding. The Connecticut Siting Council will hold both a pre-hearing conference and a public hearing on the application and, prior to construction, the council will require Cellco to submit a development and management plan that incorporates any conditions it imposes.
These procedures are outside the town’s jurisdiction and are governed by state statutes.
Robinson & Cole wrote, “In our experience, the primary [environmental] impact of a wireless facility such as the proposed Norfolk South facility is visual.” That impact will vary from place to place in South Norfolk, they conceded, “with the majority of the year-round visibility affecting 183 acres, or 2.3 percent, of the two-mile radius study area.”
Norfolk Zoning Enforcement Officer Stacey Sefcik asked for a test that calls for a balloon to be floated on the site at the height of the tower to assess visibility.
Last year, residents of Old Goshen Road were alarmed to learn of a proposal to build a Verizon tower virtually in their front yards. They considered trying to raise funds to buy the 10-acre parcel from Michael Farrington, the Florida man who had inherited, but never visited, the land. The plan for that property faded and Verizon moved on to the new location.