Bethlehem panel OKs permit for site quarter-mile from school
by bryan fitzgerald Special to the Times Union
Published 11:05 a.m., Wednesday, February 16, 2011
bethlehem — Despite protests from parents and residents, a cellphone tower disguised to resemble a pine tree is one step closer to breaking ground blocks away from an elementary school.
The town Planning Board voted 5-0 Tuesday night to approve a special-use permit and site plan for the site at 75 Van Dyke Road, a quarter of a mile from Eagle Elementary School.
One member of the seven-member board abstained; another was absent.
In January, the town Zoning Board approved the proposal to the build the tower, which will be built on private land at Sunnyside Farms.
Bethlehem Senior Planner Robert Leslie said the company building the tower, ESCO Tower Inc., still has to apply for a building permit from the town.
In 2009, the Bethlehem school district considered placing three separate cell towers on school property to generate nontax revenue, but backed off after parents complained. The district expected to generate about $30,000 annually from the project.
Earlier this week, parents concerned over their children’s potential exposure to the tower’s radiation and residents fearful of the tower’s aesthetics rallied in front of the school.
“No matter how the planning board of the town of Bethlehem plans on spinning its blatant disregard for the concern of town residents and the potential risk to over 2,200 students, teachers and staff at both Eagle Elementary School and Bethlehem High School, the process to allow the construction of the cell tower at 75 Van Dyke Road is disrespectful to the wishes of parents, students and antithetical to the town’s long-standing tradition of preserving open spaces,” Guillermo A. Martinez, chair of Parents Against Cell Towers and a Bethlehem resident, said in a written statement.
To try to camouflage the tower among nearby trees, Leslie said the tower will be designed to look like a pine tree. AT&T and Verizon have been linked to the project.
Town Supervisor Sam Messina said there was no data to suggest the tower would pose any health risks or lower surrounding property values.
“This whole process has been very closely watched and examined,” Messina said.
Both Leslie and Messina did not know when the cell tower’s construction would begin or end.
David Carpenter, director of the Institute of Health and the Environment at University at Albany, said the towers release the same low dose of radiation as a cellphones. He said cellphones pose more of a health risk because they are held close to the body, but that the risk in nominal.
Cellphones and towers emit non-ionizing radiation, a far less intense form of energy than the ionized radiation associated with radioactive forms, like X-ray tubes.
Alex Yatsevitch, a retired Department of Transportation worker who lives two blocks from the site on Delaware Avenue, protested with those objecting to the tower for health risks, but said he objected because the tower would obstruct his view of the Helderberg Mountains.
Yatsevitch, who said he does not own a cellphone, said those who rallied with him because they were concerned about the tower’s radiation but did not get rid of their personal cellphones were hypocritical.
“If you are protesting the tower and have a cellphone, you have no case,” Yatsevitch said.
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