New tower in Carlton for high-speed Internet concerns neighbors
Some residents say tower fall zone at water treatment plant includes private access road
Photo by Tom Rivers
CARLTON – Rick Stacey on Monday tells the Carlton Planning Board his shares his concerns about a new 150-foot-high tower that is planned on land by the Village of Albion Water Treatment Plant on Wilson Road in Carlton. From left include Planning Board members Valerie Beam, Robert VanWuyckhuyse, Chairman Bill Quaranto, secretary Brenda Mufford and member David Warren.
Stacey said neighbors weren’t notified of the project, and the fall zone for the tower cuts across a private access road for Oak Orchard on the Lake.
Contractors are already on site working on the project, and have used private land without permission to access the site, Stacey said.
The Town of Carlton Planning Board on Monday approved a revised site plan that now uses the driveway for the Village of Albion Water Treatment Plant as the access road. The board approved a special use permit, too. The rest of the project hasn’t been changed from the site plan approved on April 1 by the Carlton Planning Board.
The tower is part of a $11,216,500 contract from North Shore Networks LLC in Medina to implement the faster internet service. The county in November 2024 was awarded a $11,562,698 state grant to upgrade wireless internet service throughout the county.
The funding came through the Empire State Development’s ConnectALL Municipal Infrastructure Program. This will allow the county to increase wireless internet speeds from the current 25 Mega Bit Per Seconds (Mbps) to 100 (Mbps).
There are currently 19 towers for the high-speed internet system. There are new towers planned for Carlton and Ridgeway, as well as equipment to go on a grain silo in Clarendon.
Stacey, however, said the Carlton site is on a village-owned property that doesn’t allow a fall zone without going onto neighboring private property. He addressed the board on Monday, sharing concerns from four other property owners as well – David Coleman, Gary and Ruth Smith, Steve Nesbitt, and Brett and Arora Browning.
He asked the Carlton Planning Board to order an immediate stop work order on the construction, saying it’s a clear violation of the 1 ½ times fall zone violation.
Stacey said there is a 34-foot survey boundary discrepancy that puts the fall zone on private property. He asked for the town attorney to initiate an independent review of the survey discrepancy. He also said the town faces legal exposure because code enforcement officer Kevin Sheehan lacked the certification to approve the project. Sheehan also has a conflict of interest as a trustee for the Village of Albion, which owns the land and the water treatment plant, Stacey said.
He requested the full public record for all Carlton building permits, environmental reviews for the project and the precise grant application layout that was submitted to the state.
Planning Board Chairman Bill Quaranto said Monday’s meeting wasn’t a public hearing. He gave Stacey five minutes to present his comments, but stopped him after five minutes.
When the board went through a lengthy resolution to approve the project with a revised plan for the access road, Stacey interjected there were legitimate safety concerns for residents. If the tower falls, it could block the access road for Oak Orchard on the Lake, Stacey said.
Town Attorney Bridget O’Toole warned him more than once to refrain from making further comments because it wasn’t a public hearing.
Stacey, after the meeting, said he intends to file an injunction and seek to have the project stopped at the current location. He said there other spots in Carlton where the tower could meet the network needs, including by co-locating on a tower on McCutcheon Road near Kendrick Road.
The Planning Board in its resolution on Monday said the location by the water treatment plant is within “the technically feasible area necessary to provide the intended broadband service and line-of-sight microwave backhaul.”
The county evaluated other suitable structures and existing towers or co-location but with the Carlton site there was no existing structure to provide both the required wireless coverage and line-of-sight connectivity to adjacent wireless hub sites, according to the Carlton Planning Board resolution.
“The municipal utility site is the most appropriate reasonably available location based upon the network design, existing public infrastructure, municipal ownership, surrounding land uses and available space for the facility and required fall zone,” according to the resolution passed by the Carlton Planning Board.
