A majority of the 273 respondents to a survey about personal wireless communication support replacing two existing towers — that do not host commercial wireless service providers — with towers that can support them, and publicly owned properties and properties with nonresidential land uses are the preferred locations for new wireless infrastructure, a consultant told the Sag Harbor Village Board on Tuesday.
As she had in August and October, Susan Rabold of CityScape Consultants, which is developing a wireless master plan for the village, appeared virtually to update and confer with the board, this time with results of the community survey taken in November and December.
Fifty-three percent of respondents support replacing the 165-foot public safety tower at the Sag Harbor Fire Department on Brick Kiln Road with a 170-foot tower that accommodates wireless carrier antennas, while another 26 percent said they would support a 120-foot tower but not a 170-foot tower. Twenty-one percent opposed a replacement tower to add wireless antennas at the location.
Two-thirds of respondents support replacing WLNG’s existing, non-concealed 165-foot tower on Redwood Road with a tower of similar design that can accommodate wireless antennas.
CityScape has advised the village that, while replacing one or both towers with towers accommodating wireless antennas would improve coverage in the village, the addition of between nine and 33 “small wireless facilities” or micro towers, usually no more than 50 feet tall, would virtually eliminate coverage gaps.
However, a majority rejected both of two scenarios presented: replacing the Fire Department tower with a 120-foot tower and of WLNG’s tower with a 165-foot tower, as well as replacing the Fire Department tower with a 170-foot tower. Both scenarios would include the addition of small wireless facilities, which Ms. Rabold said likely explains the seeming contradiction between support for the towers’ replacement but opposition to both scenarios.
Respondents are opposed to small wireless facilities in street rights of way, and especially in residential areas, she said. Just 14.6 percent of respondents support replacing the firehouse tower and WLNG’s tower plus the addition of between nine and 27 small wireless facilities, and only 10.3 percent support a 170-foot tower at the firehouse and the addition of 11 to 33 small wireless facilities. Just under 23 percent support either scenario.
Forty-five of 103 comments offered by survey respondents “had clear opposition to small-cell facilities in residential areas, and of that number, 27 specifically mentioned the desire to keep small-cell facilities out of the historic Black beach community overlay and those surrounding areas,” Ms. Rabold said. But “the way that the federal government has regulated the rights of ways is that if the industry wants to come in and go on an existing pole — not a replacement pole or a new pole — you have to allow them to go on any existing pole. But you do have leverage when it comes to a replacement pole or a new pole with regard to design.”
While just 15.5 percent of respondents deemed wireless coverage inside their residence excellent, 43.4 percent called it acceptable. Coverage at home was deemed poor by 20.4 percent, and almost 18 percent called it inconsistent. Forty-four percent of respondents called wireless coverage acceptable when traveling in and around Sag Harbor, while 22.5 percent deemed it inconsistent, 21 percent rated it poor, and 12 percent called it excellent. Thirty-two respondents said that their service is poor in the Main Street/downtown area, while 18 said it is poor at the waterfront and on beaches.
The survey results should guide the board in making changes to the village code “so you don’t end up with infrastructure in the future that you oppose,” Ms. Rabold said. She will update the draft wireless master plan with the data gleaned from the survey, she said, and recommend changes to the village’s wireless code.
