Town Meeting narrowly blocks cell zoning overhaul
The measure would have loosened zoning for cell towers, monopoles, and building-mounted antennas.
Concordians are used to cellphone calls failing.
By a single vote, so did a Town Meeting measure intended to attract better cell service.
Article 35 on this year’s warrant would have loosened Acton’s zoning for cell towers, monopoles, and building-mounted antennas. The proposal drew eleventh-hour opposition and, after nearly 90 minutes of debate on Tuesday night, barely missed the required two-thirds majority to pass.
“Every vote counts,” School Committee member Sandeep Pisharody told The Acton Bridge as people left the Acton-Carlisle High School gym.
Cell rezoning was the most hotly debated article through the first two nights of this year’s Annual Town Meeting, which was to wrap up Wednesday night, after this edition of The Bridge went to press.
Among other decisions, school officials won long-sought funding for a bathroom building at the high school’s Memorial Field. Voters approved a non-binding resolution about requiring solar panels on new town buildings. They also green-lighted a reform intended to allow more buildings that combine residential and commercial uses.
Town Meeting drew 471 people Monday night and 524 on Tuesday, according to Town Clerk Kaari Mai Tari.
‘Unacceptable’
How to tackle Acton’s cellular dead zones has long been a source of debate. The Planning Board pitched its reform as an overhaul of outdated rules that heavily limit where companies can build towers.
During Town Meeting, resident Brian Sykes recalled how his mother-in-law tripped and fell at the Town House. Cell calls to 911 didn’t go through, he said, and they had to yell to staff to use a landline to call an ambulance, Sykes said.
“That’s unacceptable,” he said, urging voters to support the proposal.
While proponents cast cell expansion as a safety measure, critics said they fear health hazards from the antennas. Others have bemoaned a hit to property values or Acton’s historic aesthetic.
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The Planning Board worked on a Town Meeting cell proposal for months and board Vice Chair Abby Flanagan said she was “surprised how little public comment we received.”
That changed in recent weeks as Concordian Gail Hire led a group of residents arguing that the town was ceding too many rights to cell companies. She proposed a compromise between the Planning Board’s option and the status quo, but voters rejected it.
The Planning Board version had plenty of supporters who argued that the plan would preserve oversight while making the town more welcoming to carriers.
Not everyone was sold. Resident Lela Jacobsohn said she was “dismayed” to be discussing a proposal that was “completely antithetical to the character of the town.”
Ex-Select Board Chair Henry Dane tried to amend cell zoning at last year’s Town Meeting but that proposal also fell short. He told The Bridge he voted for the Planning Board’s changes but said the package’s “complicated” nature may have contributed to its downfall.
Although more than 500 people were present at some point on Town Meeting’s second day, only 293 cast a vote just before 10:45 p.m.
Amenities approval
Besides cell rules, school brass all but closed the book on their years-long bathroom building saga when voters approved a larger package of grants under the Community Preservation Act.
The new building will replace portable restrooms at the high school and bring CCHS’ Memorial Field stadium into compliance with state plumbing code and the Americans with Disabilities Act, officials say.
Supporters beat back a last-minute amendment to strip bathroom funding out of the article.
On his way out, voter Matt Kilmartin called the current situation an “embarrassment to our town” and told The Bridge he’s glad the article for Acton’s $1.4 million share of the project passed.
Carlisle will consider its $465,460 portion at its Town Meeting this month.
Celeste Katz Marston and Trace Salzbrenner contributed reporting.
