The Londonderry Heritage Commission has given its approval to a plan by T-Mobil to construct a cell tower on Chase Road, and has passed the project on to the Zoning and Planning boards.
In its Jan. 26 meeting, the Commission heard from Elizabeth Kohler, an attorney representing the American Tower Company, on a plan to erect a wireless facility at 76 Chase Road.
Kohler told the Commission that the purpose of building the tower is to improve T-Mobil’s wireless service to the area. The proposed site is in the Beaver Brook Area, she said, and could lend itself to hosting other carriers in the future.
The structure would improve communication in the Mammoth Road, South Road and Morningstar Drive areas, she said.
Kohler said the structure would be a monopole, with the tip of its antenna at 149 feet.
At the end of December, she said, the company filed for design review with the Planning Board and is working its way through the design review process. “Once we have a full set of comments, we will proceed to the final design review,” she said.
The project will be on the Feb. 15 Zoning Board of Adjustment agenda, she said
The plan is to enter through an existing driveway at 76 Chase Road and proceed through an access road that is part paved, part gravel. There will be a 50×50-foot compound around the tower, according to Kohler
“We had to juggle it to get it on the parcel with minimal encroachment into the buffer,” she said.
There will be no change in the elevation to the road, though the company is planning to replace some of the packed soils with gravel for drainage, she said.
The company looked at issues such as topography, population and its own coverage area in selecting the site, Kohler said. They looked for “co-location” with other companies, but exhausted the possibilities, she said.
The company found seven properties that might work and vetted them, including 135 Nashua Road, 24 Griffin Road, 1 South Road, 6 South Road, 33 South Road and Kendall Pond, before settling on the Chase Road site.
A balloon test on Jan. 6 found that the tower, when built, would be most visible from Kendall Pond Road, Kohler said.
“Are there any stone walls that would be disturbed?” Chairman Martin Srugis asked, to which Kohler said no.
Srugis also asked if the tower would be less visible in summer when the leaves are out. Kohler said there will be arborvitae and a fence, in addition to existing mixed vegetation, to screen the lower portion of the tower from view from the road.
The owner is proposing other improvements, including drainage, she told the Commission.
Member Dave Colglazier asked if the company could include some purple lilacs, a Heritage Commission favorite, and Kohler said she would ask.
The Commission voted unanimously to approve the project.
In other business, the Commission reelected Srugis as chair and Pauline Caron as vice-chair. Colglazier was asked if he would be willing to reprise his role as secretary and he said.
“I don’t know what we’d do,” Srugis said, “if your pen ever stopped writing.”
“I have others,” Colglazier reassured him.