By BadNewsMan on Friday, January 30, 2004 - 06:26 am: Decided January 29, 2004
The Court Decision:
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The Court's Conclusion (order):
We reverse the Board's denial of the variances and site plan approval, and we remand for the Board to grant forthwith the variance application and approve the site plan, pending successful completion of the 47 C.F.R. 11307(a)(4) environmental assessment process.
Quote:..."The proposed site for the cell tower was located at the top of a 580-foot knoll near the center of the Route 24 coverage gap, on a 10.23 acre, privately owned lot, 255 feet wide by 1760 feet deep, in a sparsely populated R-1 zone. The property, which is heavily wooded and improved with a single-family residence, fronts on Route 24, but has ingress and egress through a gravel driveway connecting to Conifer Drive. Lower elevation residential lots surround the property. "...
...In response to comments from members of the public, the carriers revised the site plan changing the monopole to a 140-foot "tree" designed to resemble a white pine, with branches extending down beneath the existing tree cover; placing all equipment shelters and cabinets in a single building made to look like a barn; reducing the size of the facility to 4,600 square feet; surrounding it with an eight-foot board-on-board fence; and reducing the driveway to twenty feet with forty-three ten-foot evergreens planted along the edges for screening. ...
Funniest remark in the decision:
Quote:
The Board delayed its decision on the application for months by allowing lengthy, even repetitive and irrelevant testimony from the public.
