Three months after First Selectwoman Tara Carr suggested imposing a moratorium to block the tower's construction, the Connecticut Siting Council issued a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need to Homeland Towers LLC for the construction, maintenance and operation of the wireless telecommunications facility proposed for 60 Vale Road.
According to Homeland's March 2022 technical report, the company already entered into a lease with the owner of the nearly four-acre property to construct and maintain the tower, which would provide reliable wireless services to southern Brookfield and portions of eastern Danbury and northern Bethel.
Carr, who could not be reached for comment Friday, has acknowledged that parts of town lack reliable cellphone coverage. But she has also said she's concerned about the proposed tower's effect on the health of residents and wildlife — even though federal agencies say it's highly unlikely that cell towers could expose humans to radio frequencies greater than the permissible limit.
While other town officials said they support the construction of the cell tower because it would improve communications for emergency services, others in town share the same concerns as Carr.
After the Siting Council's Feb. 2 decision to grant Homeland the certificate for the Vale Road cell tower project, a group called Connecticut for Responsible Technology in Brookfield filed a motion in May to reopen the evidentiary hearing and modify the council's decision on the matter.
Under Connecticut's Uniform Administrative Procedure Act, the Siting Council has the ability to — at the request of any person or on its own motion — reverse or modify a final decision on a showing of changed conditions following a proceeding.
Connecticut for Responsible Technology in Brookfield says that new information had surfaced since the council rendered its decision and cited "changed conditions" related to coverage gap evidence, site location hazards, radiation concerns due to tower-sharing, lack of Federal Communications Commission radio frequency emissions guidelines, zoning violations and lack of public disclosure of the lease agreement between Homeland and the Vale Road property owner in its motion.
After a June 22 public hearing, the Siting Council voted to reject the motion "on the basis that changed conditions do not exist ... to reopen and modify the final decision."
"The council determined none of these claims amounted to 'new information' or 'changed conditions' since the Council rendered its final decision to issue a Certificate for the tower," Siting Council Executive Director Melanie A. Bachman said Friday.
The Brookfield residents who filed the motion could not be reached for comment Friday.
© 2023 The News-Times (Danbury, Conn.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
