“Can You Hear Me Now?” New Verizon Monopole Cell Tower Will Improve Cellular Service in Wilton

Wilton’s Board of Selectmen (BOS) has given cellular service provider Verizon the green light to construct a new monopole cell tower in Wilton. Plans show it would be located at the school bus depot at 180 School Road, opposite Middlebrook School

With the monopole expected to improve at least some of those pesky cellular dead zones within the Town, officials consider the negotiated agreement a win/win for Wilton, thanks to important additional benefits for Wilton’s public safety radio communications.

Service improvements would be expected in the nearby Wilton school complexes and along much of Danbury Rd. in central Wilton, though an exact coverage map will not be available until Verizon submits its required application for a “Certificate of Need” with the Connecticut Siting Council, which governs all telecommunications locations.

The agreement was discussed at last night’s Nov. 1 BOS meeting.

Doug LoMonte, an attorney for the Town of Wilton with the law firm of Bercham Moses, P.C., outlined the key provisions of the lease agreement:

• The agreement gives Verizon permission to construct a 123-foot monopole cell tower. Preliminary engineering plans submitted by Verizon, including the site layout and an elevation drawing, may be found on the Town website. (Although the plans include two options, LoMonte indicated that Verizon would most likely pursue the option with a greater setback from the parking lot.)
• The annual rent payable to the Town of Wilton will be $30,000. That would increase by 2.75% per year.
• The lease has a five-year initial term, with four, five-year extension options, for a total of 25 years. Wilton can terminate the lease — and, as LoMonte says, enter into an agreement with another carrier — if Verizon doesn’t act in a timely manner. Specifically, Verizon would have to file an application with the Connecticut Siting Council within twelve months. Based on his interactions with Verizon’s representatives, LoMonte said he was “confident” Verizon intended to proceed in a timely way.
• Verizon will be responsible for any damage caused to the bus depot area.

According to Director of Land Use and Town Planner Michael Wrinn, the construction project is not expected to result in any significant changes to bus operations, in part due to the extra capacity currently available in the bus parking area. As seen in the preliminary rendering below, the construction area would be set back from the parking area and would have its own 12-foot-wide access way.

A “red balloon test” will conducted after the site plan is finalized. In order to gauge whether the new tower would be visible throughout town, a red balloon would be floated up to the 123-foot mark, while the area is photographed at various vantage points throughout town. That information would become part of the application with the Connecticut Siting Council.

Another Benefit: Public Safety Radio

The BOS negotiations with Verizon resulted in an agreement to permit the Town to install public safety radio equipment on the tower.

For a token “fee” of just $1 per year, Wilton will have the right to use the tower for future emergency communications needs.

The Town is required to upgrade its aging public safety radio system used by police, fire, EMS and DPW. The essentially free use of the monopole would be a positive factor in the overall cost of the upgraded system, which is expected to be at least $250,000 over the next 10 years.

Wilton Police Department Capt. Tom Conlon, who attended the BOS meeting, told the selectmen that an additional tower within the Town would be a significant advantage, particularly in areas of dense development along Danbury Rd. where coverage issues are known to exist with emergency radio communications. He added that those issues might further increase with new, higher density development in the future.

Other Carriers

“Initially, Verizon will be the only carrier on the tower,” LoMonte told the selectmen. “However, the tower will be designed to accommodate other carriers.”

LoMonte explained that the [Connecticut] Siting Council encourages other carriers to “co-locate,” i.e., to locate their own equipment on another provider’s tower.

“If another carrier were to file an application with the [Connecticut] Siting Council to co-locate on that tower, given that it does have capacity, Verizon would have to accept that. Verizon does not have the right to say, ‘no, we want this tower all for ourselves.’ It doesn’t work that way.”

LoMonte also told the board it’s too soon to know if other carriers will apply to co-locate  on that tower. “Often, the other carriers hold back until construction is underway.”

If other carriers do co-locate on the tower, the Town would receive fees from those carriers as well, under the lease agreement with Verizon.

First Selectwoman Lynne Vanderslice also noted that major carriers are currently co-located on multiple towers throughout Wilton. (Residents interested in seeing a list of all cell towers in Wilton, their respective heights and carriers can find a Powerpoint document with all of that information on the town website.)

Ultimately, the BOS voted unanimously to authorize Vanderslice to execute the lease agreement with Verizon, pending completion of some exhibits and finalizing specific dates in the lease. According to LoMonte, “There won’t be any material changes” to the document reviewed by the BOS.