New Paltz Town Planning Board members are discussing an application to erect a cell tower at 60 Jansen Road. (Photo by Lauren Thomas)
New Paltz Town Planning Board members learned at their November 25 meeting that they will have some say over plans to site a cellular tower on Jansen Road, but that federal law prevents them from dragging their feet on making a decision. An application to erect a tower at 60 Jansen Road on behalf of Homeland Towers has not yet been submitted, as that would trigger a hard deadline of 150 days to complete all aspects of the approval process, which includes any variances applied for at the Zoning Board of Appeals. Board attorney Richard Golden strongly recommended using a wireless consultant to advise them on the process.
Once submitted, this application will require a use variance, for which a difficult hardship barrier must be met; the hardship in this case would be the gap in service which the antenna would address. Planning Board members will have oversight on the visual impact of the tower, and consultants are pushing for a balloon test to help identify from where in town it might be seen. This tower will be small enough not to require a light atop it.
Board member Amy Cohen pressed for more information about cancer concerns related to cellular towers. She was directed to the American Cancer Society and advised that a wireless consultant would be able to advise on the levels of radiation emitted.
If a tower is constructed, as board member Lyle Nolan noted, additional antennae may be mounted upon it, but he was advised that each change would again be subject to some level of local review.
…meanwhile, it is near impossible to walk and park along Main Street in downtown New Paltz because although the street has been “plowed” the Town has not come through with a secondary crew to actually shovel the piles of snow that block parking spots, completely block pedestrians from crossing the street, and have narrowed the sidewalks to a one-person width!
This town needs to stop blocking development, stop cherry picking rules that apply to one property owner and not another and actually keep Main Street (at least) and it’s sidewalks C L E A R of snow.
Having recently visited several other towns of equal size following the snow I marvel at how they come through at night when traffic is light and have a crew of four or five and a dump truck and do the work that tax payers fund to scoop up the snow piles and we awake with 100% clear curbs, gutters, crosswalks, and parking spaces.
The twisted idiocy of New Paltz plays out once again.
Not only should we EXPECT this level of snow clearing, we DESERVE this level of snow clearing…until then,
New Paltz only contributes to even worse traffic and less parking downtown. Where are the business owners with THEIR protest signs outside of the library?!
The Village is in charge of snow removal on Main Street from the Youth Center to the Walkill River Bridge, and from the VFW to BOCES. SUNY is in the Village, the Village is in the Town, the Town is in the County of Ulster. The School District’s tax area goes into Llloyd and Plattekill.
Oh, and Jansen Road is a County of Ulster Road, which is plowed by the County taxpayers so there will be right access to Dubois Road and its special inhabitants. Pretty soon, 50 houses will be put in on the Dubois Farm lands, 93 acres subdivided all to hell.