Lincoln Planning Board Sends AT&T Tower Case to February Special Hearing

LINCOLN — January 10, 2023 — Lincoln Planning Board continues AT&T tower application to February 7 special hearing amid emissions and permitting questions. The board, meeting virtually January 10, voted unanimously to continue an eligible facilities request filed by AT&T — which seeks to relocate its antenna from a decommissioned tower on the Siegel property to the existing Verizon-owned Oreo Landing tower, with a six-foot, 10-inch height increase — after members raised concerns that the carrier holds no existing special permit for the new site and that submitted radio-frequency calculations, pegged at 10.26 percent of the federal maximum for all carriers combined at six feet above ground, do not address exposure levels at the elevation of nearby Groves apartments. Attorney Ed Pare agreed to commission a supplemental study from consultant Don Hayes targeting the nearest residential building at residential-floor height and to extend the federal 60-day shot clock in writing, with a hard deadline of May 2023 when the old tower's lease expires. The board also held a wide-ranging but unresolved discussion of its Mixed-Use Village District draft, with members divided on whether to allow 15 units per acre by right on Lewis Street in anticipation of Housing Choice Act compliance, and agreed to pursue two Town Meeting warrant articles drafted by Town Counsel Joel Bard to legalize the board's existing eligible facilities practice and remove an unenforceable cluster-development land-dedication requirement.