CAZENOVIA — On Feb. 12, the Cazenovia Town Board held a public hearing on a proposed local law to amend the town code with respect to commercial mobile service facilities.

The proposed local law explains that while the federal government has regulated the commercial mobile industry, it has given local governments the power to regulate uses with regard to placement, construction, and other issues.

According to the proposed legislation, the purpose of the commercial mobile service facilities section of the town code is “to establish predictable and balanced regulations for the siting of telecommunication facilities in order to accommodate the growth of such facilities while protecting the public against any adverse impacts on aesthetic resources and the public safety and welfare. The Town of Cazenovia wants to accommodate the need for telecommunications facilities while regulating their location and number, minimizing adverse visual impacts through proper design, siting and screening, avoiding potential physical damage to adjacent properties, and encouraging joint use of tower structures.”

The section is also intended to minimize the number of telecommunications towers in the community by encouraging the shared use of existing and future towers and the use of existing tall buildings and other high structures to further minimize adverse visual effects from telecommunications towers.

“This section is not intended to prohibit or have the effect of prohibiting the provision of personal wireless services, nor shall it be used to unreasonably discriminate among the providers of functionally equivalent services consistent with current federal regulations,” the proposed local law states.

Randy Nash, a resident of Rippleton Road, started off the public hearing by noting that he and other interested citizens submitted “quite a bit of information” for the town to consider when rewriting the commercial mobile service facilities section of the town code.

One of the group’s major focus areas, according to Nash, was tower height.

Nash questioned why the changes proposed by the group regarding tower height regulations had been left out of the proposed local law.

He pointed to a specific provision in the proposed local law that requires an applicant to submit photo documentation to demonstrate that no more than 20 feet of the structure and associated antenna are visible from all residential properties within a half mile of the site at the time of application to the town.

“This doesn’t say the same thing as the language that we sent in,” Nash said.

He explained that when considering tower height, the group of interested citizens contemplated how best to deal with camouflage towers.

According to Nash, a camouflage tower can only be effectively hidden if it protrudes no more than 20 feet above the tree line.

“Once you start going higher than that, it starts becoming something that is [visible] on the landscape,” Nash said.

He then remarked that the language included in the proposed local law does not mean that a tower can only be 20 feet above the tree line; it just means that from half a mile away, a person can only see 20 feet of the tower above the tree line.

To emphasize the difference between the language in the proposed local law and the language submitted by the group of interested citizens, Nash referred to a telecommunications tower just west of New Woodstock that is “easily 80 to 100 feet above the tree line.”

He said he went to every house within a half mile of that tower to assess the visibility of the structure.

“Not one of those houses sees 20 feet of that tower,” Nash reported. “In fact, all of them except one don’t even see the tower within that half mile. Obviously, a tower 100 feet above the tree line, no matter how many fake pine tree limbs you put on it, is going to be detrimental to the landscape. In fact, all the people within a half mile don’t see it, but the rest of New Woodstock and most of Cazenovia sees that tower. So, this language [doesn’t] work for camouflage towers.”

He suggested that the specific language regarding tower height should be discussed further before the town board votes on the proposed law.

“I’m pretty sure we can come up with some language that everybody would be happy with,” Nash said.

Brendan Rigby, a resident of Cobb Hill Road, agreed that the proposed language regarding tower height is perhaps “not protective enough.”

“We do appreciate the amount of time and effort that has gone into this,” Rigby said. “You have met with us on multiple occasions, and many of the things that we suggested [did] get incorporated here. I do think that the proposed legislation is a marked improvement over the current law, and I really do appreciate that. It’s just some of these [more] subtle points here that we are revisiting.”

In response to the public input, Town Attorney John Langey commented that he was able to incorporate about 80 to 90 percent of the interested citizens’ proposed changes into the law with no problem.

“[However, when reading] some of the language, particularly about what you folks were talking about, I wasn’t sure how that was going to operate in the real world, or what the courts might say, or what the industry might try to do to challenge it,” Langey said.

The town attorney also explained that the board had two options to consider that evening.

“The board can [table] it tonight and have more meetings to decide if you want some different language,” he said. “Or you can adopt what has been presented to you tonight after you hear everybody on this public hearing and then maybe continue to work on it, like we [did] with the solar law. We adopted it and then we tuned it up a few months later for a few other things that we wanted. So those are options for you. Nothing is final tonight, whether they adopt it or not.”

Following a brief discussion, the board voted to close the public hearing and table the resolution to enact the proposed local law.

If any changes are made to the proposed law over the next month, a new public hearing will be opened.

In other news

The town board awarded the bid for the proposed Ridge Road Highway and Drainage Improvements project to Cunningham Excavation, Inc. The total bid was for $302,113.

“This will be subject to satisfactory review by the town attorney and confirmation of all necessary permits and financing,” said Supervisor Kyle Reger.

The town board also authorized the establishment of a Major Renewable Energy Facility Committee consisting of the following community representatives: Sheila Fallon of the town board, Robert Ridler of the town planning board, Paul Curtin of the Cazenovia Advisory Conservation Commission, and Jennifer Wong of the Cazenovia Preservation Foundation.

The adopted resolution explains that the committee was proposed in response to the increasing number of large-scale renewable energy generation projects in Madison County and “in response to Executive Law [Section] 94-c and/or any subsequent legislation approved by the NYS Legislature and Governor relative to such projects.”

Reger announced that his next monthly office hours are scheduled for Saturday, March 2, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., to allow community members to sit down with him and discuss any town issue.

The town board typically meets on the second Monday of each month at 7:30 p.m. in the Gothic Cottage. For more information, visit towncazenovia.digitaltowpath.org or call the town office at 315-655-9213.