Marblehead planning board approves cell phone tower equipment increase

MARBLEHEAD – Linda Weltner wasn’t able to stop the increases in cell phone equipment at the water tower at 25 Tower Way or at 4 Community Road Tuesday night, but she will have a chance to help rewrite the town’s zoning bylaw.Weltner was one of about 30 residents who stayed for the Planning Board’s late-night hearing on the two cell requests. She and others made their feelings known to selectmen earlier this month.She told selectmen she is concerned about the health effects of emissions from cellular equipment. As the selectmen and Planning Board Chairman Philip Helmes pointed out, the 10-year-old town zoning bylaw on cellular equipment deals mostly with aesthetic appearance and does not address health, leaving that to the Federal Communications Commission.Metro Personal Communications Service representative Andrew Lacey told the Planning Board that a 6-foot man standing as close to the water tower as he could get without climbing it would receive 2.3 percent of the allowable FCC standard for cell emissions.”We are clearly in compliance with the FCC,” Lacey said.”The emissions are much lower than the FCC allows,” Town Planner Becky Curran said Wednesday. Curran said she invited Weltner to meet with her to see if the bylaw can be revised.The Planning Board withheld approval of the water tower equipment until June 24. Board members want a legal opinion from Town Counsel Lisa Mead on the technical definition of a cellular monopole versus a cellular antenna.They approved the Community Road request with conditions, including a requirement that the equipment meet FCC standards.