As noted below, there will be a Public Forum on the emergency communications tower intended for the hill above the Town Garage this Wednesday at 7pm.
I welcome the open process taken by the committee in this matter and appreciate the time they took to hear me out at their meeting earlier this month. Based on that meeting, it's clear to me the town fire, police, and highway departments all feel strongly that better emergency communications system coverage would be a meaningful public good to Norwich residents. Both the committee and our town manager have done an exemplary job making available helpful explanatory data supporting their plan for the proposed tower on the town website. The effort to conduct a balloon test allowing neighbors to assess the visual impact of the proposed tower was of limited utility as most trees had already leafed out, but the intention was certainly welcome.
Nevertheless, I want to share my own concerns -- and those expressed to me by neighbors -- regarding this tower.
Change is always hard for those content with the status quo. Here, a 180' tower looming directly out our front door will be a big change for our household and our neighbors.
Eight years ago, I chaired the Development Review Board review of the Verizon cell tower off Upper Loveland Road. Those hearings presented a stark contrast between neighbors concerned by the tower's potential impact on their homes; Verizon's interest in the tower as a business investment; and town residents further afield interested in better cell coverage. When this tower comes before the DRB sometime this autumn, we will see the same, difficult, conflict between a public good and the costs that good imposes on a few private citizens. While we ultimately approved that tower, we did so with a clear understanding of the localized impacts telecommunications towers pose to their neighbors.
First and foremost, these towers are very large and -- where they can be seen -- ugly. They change views out people's windows and (particularly from mid-September to mid-May) their presence will be obvious to potential buyers when we try to sell out homes.
Second, these towers really scare some people regarding electromagnetic field ("EMF") radiation. Under federal law, the DRB was preempted from considering any purported EMF radiation hazard from the Verizon tower, and will be similarly preempted when the DRB reviews this tower. Personally, I have no idea whether there is any substance to the perceived danger. I am, however, quite certain the concern is very real to some people. Witness the GMP smart meter debate both here on the Norwich listserv and across the state.
Taken together, these impacts will discourage some potential buyers when it comes time to sell our home. By the law of supply and demand, this suggests the proposed tower -- while built to serve a public good -- will impose a real, concrete cost upon my household and our neighbors not shared by the rest of town. This cost won't show up in our grand list valuation, but we will see it in the sale price. It's probably unquantifiable -- certainly the visual insult of a tower looming in what is now a fairly heavily wooded neighborhood cannot be quantified -- but it's real.
Is it fair?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:50:41 -0400
From: "Nancy Kramer"
Subject: [Norwich] Public Forum on Communications
Norwich Neighbors,
The Norwich Capital Facilities Planning and Budgeting Committee will
hold a second public forum Wednesday, June 20th, at 7 p.m. in the Tracy
Hall Multipurpose Room on the topic of radio communications equipment
used for fire, police and public works and dispatching equipment and
apparatus for the Town's public safety (Police and Fire) Departments.
I welcome the open process taken by the committee in this matter and appreciate the time they took to hear me out at their meeting earlier this month. Based on that meeting, it's clear to me the town fire, police, and highway departments all feel strongly that better emergency communications system coverage would be a meaningful public good to Norwich residents. Both the committee and our town manager have done an exemplary job making available helpful explanatory data supporting their plan for the proposed tower on the town website. The effort to conduct a balloon test allowing neighbors to assess the visual impact of the proposed tower was of limited utility as most trees had already leafed out, but the intention was certainly welcome.
Nevertheless, I want to share my own concerns -- and those expressed to me by neighbors -- regarding this tower.
Change is always hard for those content with the status quo. Here, a 180' tower looming directly out our front door will be a big change for our household and our neighbors.
Eight years ago, I chaired the Development Review Board review of the Verizon cell tower off Upper Loveland Road. Those hearings presented a stark contrast between neighbors concerned by the tower's potential impact on their homes; Verizon's interest in the tower as a business investment; and town residents further afield interested in better cell coverage. When this tower comes before the DRB sometime this autumn, we will see the same, difficult, conflict between a public good and the costs that good imposes on a few private citizens. While we ultimately approved that tower, we did so with a clear understanding of the localized impacts telecommunications towers pose to their neighbors.
First and foremost, these towers are very large and -- where they can be seen -- ugly. They change views out people's windows and (particularly from mid-September to mid-May) their presence will be obvious to potential buyers when we try to sell out homes.
Second, these towers really scare some people regarding electromagnetic field ("EMF") radiation. Under federal law, the DRB was preempted from considering any purported EMF radiation hazard from the Verizon tower, and will be similarly preempted when the DRB reviews this tower. Personally, I have no idea whether there is any substance to the perceived danger. I am, however, quite certain the concern is very real to some people. Witness the GMP smart meter debate both here on the Norwich listserv and across the state.
Taken together, these impacts will discourage some potential buyers when it comes time to sell our home. By the law of supply and demand, this suggests the proposed tower -- while built to serve a public good -- will impose a real, concrete cost upon my household and our neighbors not shared by the rest of town. This cost won't show up in our grand list valuation, but we will see it in the sale price. It's probably unquantifiable -- certainly the visual insult of a tower looming in what is now a fairly heavily wooded neighborhood cannot be quantified -- but it's real.
Is it fair?
---------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2012 10:50:41 -0400
From: "Nancy Kramer"
Subject: [Norwich] Public Forum on Communications
Norwich Neighbors,
The Norwich Capital Facilities Planning and Budgeting Committee will
hold a second public forum Wednesday, June 20th, at 7 p.m. in the Tracy
Hall Multipurpose Room on the topic of radio communications equipment
used for fire, police and public works and dispatching equipment and
apparatus for the Town's public safety (Police and Fire) Departments.
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