Town of Eastchester, NY: Minutes, Zoning Board Meeting, November 13, 2007

2 STATE OF NEW YORK

COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER

3 TOWN OF EASTCHESTER

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MINUTES OF THE

6 EASTCHESTER ZONING BOARD OF APPEALS

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9 HELD AT: Eastchester Town Hall

40 Mill Road

10 Eastchester, New York 10709

November 13, 2007 7:30 p.m.

12 B E F O R E:

14 LOUIS SATRIALE, Chairman

FRED SALANITRO, Member

15 PETER BORDUCCI, Member

STEVEN BAKER, Member

16 MARK DE MARCO, Member

P R E S E N T:

19 LOUIS REDA, Deputy Town Attorney

MARGARET UHLE, Director of Planning

20 JAY KING, Building Inspector

KERI OUELLETTE, Assistant Town Planner

24 DINA M. MORGAN

25 COLONIAL ROAD

25 BRONXVILLE, New York 10708

914-469-6353

DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER

1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 11/13/07

2 THE CHAIRMAN: Calls meeting to

order.

Pledge of Allegiance.

Approval of October minutes.

THE CHAIRMAN: We're now at the

6 point where we're ready to get into the

7 agenda and the first item on the agenda

8 tonight is Application 7-41, Omnipoint

9 Communications at 24 Ray Place.

10 MR. GAUDIOSO: Good evening. Thank

11 you, Chairman and members of the Board.

12 Robert Gaudioso with the law firm of

13 Snyder & Snyder on behalf of the

14 applicant, Omnipoint Communications.

15 As you recall, at the last meeting

16 the board held the matter open to give

17 the residents of the building the

18 opportunity to try and attain a Court

19 Order forbidding the board from voting.

20 That has not happened. In fact, there

21 was a case filed but the judge

22 specifically declined to grant a

23 temporary restraining order.

24 There were some additional

25 questions raised that was sent to us by

DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER

1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 11/13/07

2 the town planner. We did submit a

3 supplemental response. Essentially there

4 was a question about radio frequency

5 emissions on the roof top of the building

6 and the balconies. We submitted a letter

7 from Pinnacle Telecom Group showing that

8 using the correct FCC calculation the

9 facility is well within compliance, point

10 two eight seven of the allowable one

11 hundred percent limitation.

12 Secondly, there was a question

13 about whether we could co-locate at the

14 Lord & Taylor Shopping Center. Again, we

15 are already at that property. We are at

16 670 White Plains Road which is

17 essentially the Gap building. Lord &

18 Taylor is the building directly next door

19 as you're familiar. There was also a

20 question about Nick's electrical.

21 Technically under the code that is not a

22 co-location site as it's not an existing

23 cell site, but nevertheless, we did look

24 at it. We submitted a supplemental

25 affidavit from our engineer, and again,

DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER

1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 11/13/07

2 that building is about half the height of

3 the proposed site and does not provide

4 the necessary coverage.

5 So, we did submit all of that to

6 you in writing. I would be happy to

7 answer any other questions the board or

8 public would have this evening.

9 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr.

10 Gaudioso. This is a continuation of the

11 public hearing. Anything from the board

12 for the applicant's attorney?

13 (No comments.)

14 THE CHAIRMAN: This is a

15 continuation of the public hearing and we

16 can go right to the public at this point

17 if there is nothing further from the

18 board. Is there anyone from the public

19 that would like to speak with regard to

20 this application? Gentleman in the

21 front.

22 MR. SANTARIELLO: Can everybody

23 hear me okay?

24 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes.

25 MR. SANTARIELLO: Thank you again

DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER

1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 11/13/07

2 for the time. As the gentleman recently

3 pointed out, on Friday Omnipoint did

4 respond to a series of questions and this

5 is actually our response to that

6 response.

7 THE CHAIRMAN: Could you just

8 identify yourself for the record.

9 MR. SANTARIELLO: Robert

10 Santariello.

11 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.

12 MR. SANTARIELLO: As I was saying,

13 this is our response to that response. I

14 apologize, because it was received on

15 Friday and because of the holiday

16 yesterday we only had one day to analyze

17 the information and were unable to submit

18 anything previously to the Zoning Board.

19 Again, I'm speaking on behalf of

20 The Enclave owners who are opposed to

21 installation of the cell tower at 24 Ray

22 Place.

23 What I would like to address is the

24 word uncertainty. Uncertainty, according

25 to dictionary.com, like everything else

DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER

1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 11/13/07

2 on the Internet is defined as being

3 unsettled or in doubt or dependant on

4 chance, the state of being unsure of

5 something. Another word for uncertainty

6 is risk. Tonight I would like to address

7 uncertainty in just a few areas.

8 First, the RF levels and FCC

9 compliance on the balconies and terraces,

10 and I'm going to pick up where the

11 gentleman left off essentially. First of

12 all, thank you to Omnipoint for taking

13 the time and effort to respond to these

14 questions. It's important because there

15 have been Enclave owners who are very

16 frightened of the potential effects of

17 the cell tower specifically at the

18 balconies that are cut into the roof.

19 These balconies are only twenty-five feet

20 from the base of the antenna and between

21 four and thirteen feet below it.

22 I'll call your attention to the

23 diagrams over here as a very brief review

24 since these have been gone over before.

25 The first diagram, if you could see it,

DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER

1 EASTCHESTER ZBA - 11/13/07

2 shows the simulated rendering of what the

3 antenna would look like on top of the

4 building. I know it's quite small from

5 your vantage point. However, right in

6 front of it there's a cut out in the roof

7 and those are the balconies we're talking

8 about. So, if you have this closer to

9 you, you can see the antenna, which by

10 the way is covered very nicely and

11 aesthetically pleasing with the method

12 that was previously described, but it's

13 imposing right above your heads

14 twenty-five feet. If you look at it

15 here, this plan shows it's twenty-five

16 feet literally from this cut out. Here

17 is one of the balconies, these four over

18 here are other balconies and the antenna

19 is here. So, worst case we're

20 twenty-five feet to here. Depending on

21 how you interpret the vertical heights

22 here, it's between four and thirteen

23 feet -- the bottom of the antenna is

24 between four and thirteen feet above the

25 head of a six and a half foot man on the

DINA M. MORGAN, REPORTER