By John Schwing

WESTPORT — Plans to erect a 124-foot-tall cell tower on a Greens Farms Road residential property — sparking controversy when first unveiled in 2014 and again when the stalled initiative was revived last year — have been formally filed with the state.

In a 47-page document filed last week with the Connecticut Siting Council, which has sole authority over the application, the applicants ask the board to approve “construction, maintenance and operation of a telecommunications facility located at 92 Greens Farms Road.”

Application: Tower needed to remedy service “deficiencies”

The applicants — New Cingular Wireless PCS, LLC, doing business as AT&T, and Tarpon Towers II LLC — state in the application the cell tower is needed because the two major carriers planning to affix antennas onto the structure — AT&T and Verizon — “have identified significant coverage deficiencies in their existing wireless communications networks along Interstate 95, Greens Farms Road, Hillspoint Road and the neighboring areas of Westport.”

The new telecommunications tower, the applicants say, “will provide necessary in-building residential and in-vehicle coverage [including vehicles on Interstate 95]” if AT&T and Verizon are allowed to place their antennas at the 120-foot and 110-foot levels, respectively, of the structure.

The proposed tower has sparked strong opposition among neighbors and town officials when it was first proposed in 2014 and later withdrawn, and again last August when the plans were revived for the same Greens Farms Road site.

Until last week, however, formal plans had not been filed with the Siting Council.

Over the intervening months, neighbors and officials have pressed their case against the project, stressing that a large cell tower should not be located on a residential property not far from a daycare center and elementary school. (Click here and here for background reports on local opposition to the plans.)

Fruitless search for alternate location

Officials also have tried to find alternate locations in town, outside of residential districts, for the tower.

An alternate site at a 55 Greens Farms Road office complex, publicly promoted by town officials in late January, was abruptly withdrawn from consideration by the owner two weeks later.

And just days before AT&T and Tarpon Towers formally filed their plans with state on May 26, First Selectwoman Jennifer Tooker appealed to state Department of Transportation officials to reconsider their refusal to allow use of local railway property as an alternative.

Tooker’s appeal was to no avail.

Meanwhile, the cell tower developers say in the application that they held off filing formal plans for eight months while “working in good faith with the town” to consider other locations for the tower. 

The other sites, in addition to the Greens Farms Road office complex, included property owned by Eversource at 197 Compo Road South, Assumption Cemetery at 57 Greens Farms Road, the Nyala Farms office complex and two parcels owned by the state DOT on Hales Road.

“In each instance the alternative sites proved to be unavailable because property owners would not agree to lease their properties for purposes of a cell tower,” according to the application.

Nyala Farms and the town’s transfer station on the Sherwood Island Connector also “were not viable” because of radio-frequency issues, the developers said.

Pole could hold antennas for up to four wireless carriers

The filed plans say the 124-foot-tall tower, in addition to antennas for AT&T and Verizon, would have space for two more wireless carriers. It would be set inside a 35-by-64-foot fenced equipment compound, within a 2,500-square-foot area leased from the property owner.

The site at 92 Greens Farms Road covers a total of 1.99 acres, and is zoned AA Residence by the town.

The Siting Council, in reviewing the application, will accept comments from local officials and residents, and is expected to schedule a public hearing on the plans.

John Schwing, the Westport Journal consulting editor, has held senior editorial and writing posts at southwestern Connecticut media outlets for four decades. Learn more about us here.