OTISFIELD — Verizon Wireless has been cleared to move ahead with plans to construct a communications tower on property at 264 Bill Hill Road.
A group of residents had appealed the Otisfield Planning Board’s final approval for the project the day after it was granted, on May 12. The Appeals Board held a hearing on June 9 to consider the group’s complaints that planning board had disregarded intent and meaning of town ordinances and policies; as well as misinterpretations of them by the applicants and town officials.
On June 29 the Appeals Board met and reviewed the finding of facts from the hearing, presented by town attorney Zachary B. Brandwein of Bernstein Shur. At that meeting the Appeals Board unanimously upheld the Planning Board’s decision and denied the appeal.
Following that decision, the residents’ group had 15 days to file suit in Oxford County Superior Court but took no action. By July 28, Head Selectman Hal Ferguson confirmed that Brandwein had received no further notification of appeal, leaving Verizon Wireless free to proceed with construction.
Scott Anderson of Verrill Dana Law, the attorney who oversaw Verizon’s application with the planning board said that construction on the tower could start as early as this fall.
Two of the three Otisfield residents who appealed the project do not live close enough to the tower site to have legal standing to object, Anderson explained. The third is an abutting neighbor who did not participate in any hearings or meetings.
“There was never any significant opposition to the tower,” Anderson wrote in an email Tuesday morning. “And public safety staff were strongly in favor of the project.”
These maps show current cell phone coverage areas of Otisfield and the increased reception that a proposed Verizon Wireless communications tower would bring to the town.
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