Springs Fire District Will Hold Public Hearing On Assessment Of Cell Tower

The Springs Fire District commissioners will hold a public hearing on August 24 to gather input on a draft environmental assessment of the potential impacts of a cellular tower on their Fort Pond Boulevard property.

And district commissioners now insist that they—and not the Town of East Hampton—will get to decide whether environmental impacts outweigh the public need for a cell tower.

Neighbors of the residential area near the fire district were outraged when the 160-foot monopole was erected in April, saying it was done without proper notice to the community.

The fire district commissioners announced on Monday night that they received the assessment report from the engineering firm they hired to prepare it after neighbors threatened to sue for failure to follow state-mandated assessment procedures when the pole was erected on the fire department headquarters property in the spring. Electronic versions of the report itself will be available for public review later this week through District Secretary Danna Miller.

Following the public hearing, the district would be expected to finalize the assessment document at its next meeting in September, attorney Carl Irace said on Tuesday, and could choose to execute the contract with Elite Towers, the company that owns the cellular pole, immediately afterward.

Also on Monday night the commissioners adopted a declaration stating that it is their right to decide whether the need for the cellular tower outweighs any negative impacts on the surrounding region. The resolution declared that the district has found that improving the cellular communications signal in Springs is a critical need that allows them to sidestep town planning review in the interests of expediency in providing cellular service.

“The fire district finds that the Town of East Hampton’s land use regulations concerning site plan review, special permits standards, and area variances might curtail the effectiveness of the improvements to communication,” the resolution adopted unanimously by the five commissioners on Monday reads, “and might delay the benefits in service sought during the fire district’s performance of these vital services …”

Whether the town itself will, in fact, demure to the fire district’s authority still hangs in the balance of review by the town Zoning Board of Appeals, who neighbors of the fire district property asked to consider the determination by building inspectors that the district does not have to abide by town planning laws. The ZBA is expected to hear arguments in the appeal in the fall.

Mr. Irace, who was hired by the district specifically to handle the belated state assessment process for the tower, said that if the ZBA were to overturn the building inspector’s determination, the district could either challenge that finding in court, or coordinate a review of the tower with town planners.