Plan Tower Network
"You guys aren't wired, are you?" the East Hampton Town Planning Board member Gary Swanander asked representatives of Bell Atlantic NYNEX Mobile as they prepared their pitch last week for a new 100-foot-high radio tower in East Hampton.
The joke was a reference to Southampton Town's recent bribery scandal, involving a much larger tower in Noyac.
Though the NYNEX tower would be less than a third the size of the proposed Vertical Broadcasting Inc. tower in Noyac, the application could still stir up some static in East Hampton.
NYNEX representatives revealed to the Planning Board that at least three 100 to 150-foot towers may be needed here for the company to bolster its cellular phone service.
At Least Two Others
The tower now before the board would be built near the intersection of Route 114 and Cove Hollow Road. The site, on Hardscrabble Court, is currently home to East Hampton Self-Storage.
Pressed by members, NYNEX Mobile representatives acknowledged this was not the only visit they planned to make to the Planning Board. To complete its relay network in East Hampton, NYNEX is eyeing at least two more sites in the next three years: in the area of Barcelona Neck off Route 114, and near Three Mile Harbor and Camp Blue Bay in Springs.
Planning Board members made it clear they were uncomfortable reviewing an application without knowing the company's master plan. Several members even hinted the town may need to develop a policy on communications towers.
All At Once
"We're all busy people," said Mr. Swanander. "If you have a master plan, why not submit it and put them in all at once?" He suggested the representatives work with planners to find the most suitable sites.
Howard Pachman, an attorney representing NYNEX, told the board he "would be happy" to submit a master plan.
NYNEX is only one of several companies in the cellular service market, the board noted. Each company needs its own network of sites to provide service, though not all would necessarily involve towers.
"I kind of freak out when I hear you talk about Camp Blue Bay and Three Mile Harbor or Northwest Creek, and 100 and 150-foot towers popping up around town," said Job Potter, a Planning Board member. "I think the town, from a policy standpoint, really needs to understand what's coming."
"I'm not personally convinced that top-quality cellular service is a necessity for all of East Hampton," Mr. Potter added. "But that's a judgment call."
No Seams
"It's not what the town believes is good service," responded Mr. Pachman. "We're obliged under the public service law to provide seamless service. The F.C.C. sets the standards."
"We have our standards too," answered Pat Mansir, the Planning Board's chairwoman. "We'll work on ours and you work on yours."
In design, the proposed structure is a hexagonal steel tower, tapering in diameter from four feet at the base to 28 inches at the top. Two triangular platforms rest near the top, each sporting nine antennae. The tower is in one piece, rather than a four-legged, metal-frame structure.
A metal equipment building would be constructed at the base and the site would be surrounded by a fence.
Tighter Networks
NYNEX has relay sites at two locations in East Hampton now: at the "antenna farm" near the Montauk recycling center and at the Cablevision tower site on Springs-Fireplace Road.
A radio frequency engineer for the company told the board that service is "very bad" on Route 114 and in parts of East Hampton Village. The Hardscrabble site would provide coverage over a roughly two-mile radius, stretching north to the high point of Route 114, west to the East Hampton Airport, and east to the Springs-Fireplace Road site.
The need for tighter networks, said the engineer, relates to the changes in cellular technology. As car phones with powerful car-mounted antennae are replaced by portable cellular phones, the range allowed between "cell sites" shrinks.
"The rings of service were much wider before," said the engineer. "Now these sites are getting smaller."
The Planning Board chose not to delve into the specifics of the site plan last week. Mr. Potter did raise a concern over the visibility of the tower from neighboring houses, however.
"Part Of Now"
James Mangano, another board member, said there were "a lot worse locations in town we could put this," adding that "cellular is here. It's not part of the future; it's part of now."
A question remains whether the tower would be subject to the town's pyramid law. The law, which restricts the height of structures based on their distance from property lines, would prevent the tower on the proposed site.
Lisa Liquori, the town planning director, agreed this week the application will need to be reviewed in context.
"We may be taking a comprehensive look at this," she said. "It seemed like an innocuous little application when we first got it, but the more they talked, I could see people's jaws dropping!"