Diana Stricker Photo
“I think this is the most picturesque signing I’ve ever had,” Gov. Dannel P. Malloy said as he put his signature on cell tower legislation Thursday afternoon on the Stony Creek dock in Branford.
“This is a great and special place… for a celebration of this event,” Malloy said, noting that the new cell tower law helps towns protect their assets and scenic views.
Malloy praised Branford state Reps. Lonnie Reed, who authored the bill, and Pat Widlitz, who cosponsored the bill, which gives towns more input in the siting process for cell towers.
“Their great leadership in getting this passed was very important,” Malloy said.
HISTORY OF THE LEGISLATION
Reed began drafting the legislation three years ago, shortly after a flood of cell tower proposals swamped Branford, the first one targeting the village of Stony Creek. The legislation was unanimously approved by both the House and Senate, and signed into law by the governor in early July. Thursday’s signing was both ceremonial and symbolic.
“This new law proves you can make progress and still honor and respect the things that communities value most,” Reed said. “The law offers additional protections for residential neighborhoods, schools, child daycare centers and scenic treasures, and it allows telecom providers to meet the fast-growing demands for expanded services.”
The governor said he became acquainted with cell tower issues when he was mayor of Stamford. “There was literally an explosion and proliferation of cell towers,” he recalled. “We were under-prepared in many ways to handle this onslaught.”
Malloy said the new law balances the needs of technology with the needs of communities.
The law requires cell companies to notify towns 90 days, instead of 60 days, before filing an application with the Connecticut Siting Council, (CSC) which has jurisdiction over tower placement in the state. This gives towns more time to participate in the site selection process. It also requires cell companies to provide towns with more precise information and maps, describing why a cell tower is needed in the area. In addition, the law directs the CSC to give more weight to towns’ suggestions. It also prohibits towers from being erected within 250 feet of schools or day care centers.
There are also provisions stating that cell companies can be fined if they intentionally mislead the process by submitting false data. The new law urges the CSC to choose sites that serve as large a regional area as possible, and re-emphasizes the need to keep towers out of residential neighborhoods and scenic areas.
Reed thanked her colleagues on both sides of the aisle for their unanimous support of the bill. “We have worked really well together,” she said.
Diana Stricker Photo
She particularly thanked three Republican state representatives (pictured) for their aid in helping get the bill passed. Tony Hwang (Fairfield and Trumbull), John Shaban (Easton, Redding and Weston) and Laura Hoydick, (Stratford), all attended the signing ceremony.
A similar bill was overwhelmingly approved by the legislature last year, but a technicality prevented it from being signed into law. The previous year, the House approved the bill, but the session ended before the Senate could vote on the final proposal.
Reed said her own cell phone actually helped save the cell tower legislation as the clock ticked on the legislature’s closing session in May. The bill had been approved by the House in April, but was in danger of not coming to a vote in the Senate before the midnight deadline. Reed anxiously sent text messages to the Senate as she voted on bills in the House. Click here to read that story. “Thank goodness for cell service,” she said Thursday.
Widlitz, who has championed the bill with Reed over the past three years, said there was a real bipartisan effort in support of the legislation. “We had to come up with a better way of doing things,” she said. “This is a reasonable plan to let municipalities have input…and use the latest technology that is the least intrusive.”
DAROS CREATES CELL TOWER COMMITTEE
First Selectman Anthony “Unk” DaRos also spoke at the signing ceremony. “It’s really nice to see the parties come together for the good of the people and a good bill,” he said.
DaRos has spearheaded a pro-active response to cell tower issues after the number of tower proposals increased. The town established a Cell Tower Advisory Committee and hired an attorney and consultant who specialize in cell towers.
Widlitz said information from Branford’s Cell Tower Advisory Committee and from the town’s consultant played an important role in the legislation. “I think the people of Branford should be very proud they helped get this bill passed,” she later told the Eagle.
When asked by the Eagle how it felt to finally see law being signed in Branford, Reed said: “It feels fabulous. It feels like we’ve come full circle. It started in the Stony Creek area….it’s really a bill that heard what the people had to say and what technology had to say.”
BRANFORD CELL TOWER UPDATE
Diana Stricker Photo
Branford residents have taken an active role in cell tower issues, beginning in 2009 when towers were proposed in Stony Creek and in the center of Short Beach. Click here to read an early story. And Click here to read another.
Four formal applications for Branford towers have been filed with the CSC in a little more than two years. Two have already been approved—a 125-foot tower on Pine Orchard Road has been constructed; and a 109-foot tower will be built on the Medlyn Farm property on Leetes Island Road in Stony Creek.
The CSC is currently conducting hearings for a proposed tower to serve Short Beach and the adjacent Riverside neighborhood in East Haven. AT&T is requesting to build either a 120-foot tower at 171 Short Beach Road in Branford; or a 103-foot tower at 82 Short Beach Road in East Haven. Click here to read about the hearing that was held July 10.
Another hearing will be held next week at CSC headquarters in New Britain, and a third hearing on the Short Beach Road proposals will likely be held in September.
A fourth CSC application, to build a 160-foot tower on Pleasant Point Road, was recently withdrawn by T-Mobile while the company looks at alternatives suggested by the town. The CSC had scheduled hearings on the request, but they were postponed.
Several other towers were proposed at various sites in Branford, but no formal applications have yet been made.
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