For Immediate Release: June 28, 2006
Contact:
Keith P. McKeever | Public Relations | Adirondack Park Agency
contact@apa.ny.gov | (518) 891-4050
RAY BROOK, NY – Adirondack Park Agency issues over forty telecommunications permits since revision to Towers Policy.
The Adirondack Park Agency, established in 1971, is a New York State Agency that strives to balance natural resources protection with the sustainability needs of Adirondack Park communities. Among the agency’s responsibilities is review of virtually all new telecommunication facility proposals. Under the Adirondack Park Agency Act, the agency must determine that each proposed telecommunication facility is consistent and compatible with the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan and that the public benefits of proposals will not have an “undue adverse impact” on the unique natural resources of the Adirondack Park.
In 1978, the agency adopted a towers policy that discouraged mountaintop towers and promoted the co-location of facilities on existing structures. Advancements in the telecommunications industry combined with the demands of government services and public safety factors lead the Agency to revise its towers policy in August of 2000. This process included substantial input from all stakeholders and a thorough public comment period. The revised policy, adopted in February 2002, still promotes co-location and avoidance of mountaintops but takes into consideration that changing technology will result in requests for construction of new towers for improved telecommunications systems.
Under the revised towers policy the agency evaluates specific locations and designs for telecommunication proposals with the intent to ensure facilities are “substantially invisible” and near existing settlements or highway corridors where telephone and electric power is accessible. The policy also ensures facilities are designed and sited to minimize impact to nearby land uses. Co-location is preferred so long as substantial invisibility is achieved. Governmental emergency telecommunication towers are reviewed in the same manner, with consideration given to the health and safety needs of the public.
A substantially invisible telecommunication facility will blend into its surroundings and not be readily apparent from all significant potential public viewing points. Preferred methods to reduce visibility include avoiding mountaintops and ridgelines; using terrain and trees as foreground and backdrops to screen towers; minimizing tower height and bulk; using color to blend with surroundings; using existing buildings to locate facilities whenever possible; using architecturally compatible buildings to house ground equipment; and otherwise using best available technology that avoids or minimizes visual impacts. When none of the above-preferred methods achieves substantial invisibility, camouflage in scale with the surroundings may be proposed in order to blend the facility with the visual setting.
Chairman Ross Whaley stated, “The adoption of this policy has resulted in clear guidance and a better understanding of review criteria. Under this policy, the agency has successfully worked with applicants and issued forty telecommunication permits since March of 2002. These permits in turn have resulted in improved communications while ensuring the protection of the Park’s unique open space character.”
Telecommunication permits issued by the Adirondack Park Agency
The agency granted Nextel Partners and the Village of Northville a telecommunications permit in March 2006 that incorporated tower policy guidelines. The project includes construction of an eighty-foot monopole structure with attached panel antennas and a 10 ft. x 20 ft. equipment shelter. The proposed tower and equipment shelter are located 10± feet from two existing 30-foot tall, fifty-foot diameter municipal water tanks. Based upon the propagation maps submitted with the application materials, the coverage area will provide service to the Village of Northville, and surrounding areas. Presently, there is coverage south of the project site in the Town of Mayfield, and limited coverage in the Northville area.
The proposed tower will be substantially invisible from off-site locations because it is situated within a forested area with trees at or near the same height as the proposed tower. The tower is not located on a ridgeline and will not be sky-lighted above the tree line. The tower will be a dark grey color that blends with the existing vegetation. The proposed equipment shelter will be located at ground level and will not be visible from off-site areas.
(see photo 1)
Nextel Partners, the New York State Olympic Development Authority (ORDA), and the Town of North Elba were granted a permit in August 2005 to attach three panel antennas to the existing 120-meter ski jump at the Mackenzie-Intervale Ski Jumping Complex. The project also included the placement of a 9 ft. x 16 ft. equipment shelter at the base of the ski jump with associated cabling and connections to electrical and telephone utilities. The flat panel antennas are 6 feet tall x 12.5 inches wide x 7 inches deep. They are matte gray in color and flush mounted to the towers. Agency review determined no undue adverse impacts on the Park’s resources because the antennas are located on an existing structure in a developed area and will be substantially invisible from off-site locations because the new antennas are colored to match the ski jump support towers/pillars and positioned below the top of the support towers/pillars.
(see photo 2) In July 2005, the agency permitted a new telecommunication tower on the east shore of Lake George in the Town of Fort Ann. The proposal raised significant public interest and underwent an adjudicatory hearing prior to project approval. The tower was proposed for land classified as resource management – the most resistive classification under the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan.
Factors that lead to approval were: the proposed tower is not located on a mountaintop or ridgeline, is carefully sited using a topographic and vegetative foreground and backdrop, minimizes height and bulk; uses architecturally compatible building and fencing to house ground equipment, uses color of the building, fencing to blend with the background vegetation. In addition, the tower uses camouflage (simulated white pine tree) in scale with the surroundings to blend the facility with the visual setting and as such will be “substantially invisible” with respect to size, composition and color from surrounding public locations. The project also involves co-location as two carriers will be located on the same tower.
(see photo 3)
For additional information on the Adirondack Park Agency, visit our website at – http://www.apa.state.ny.us/
The agency’s towers policy is available for download from the website – http://www.apa.state.ny.us/Documents/Policies.html
About the Park
The Adirondack Park was created in 1892 by the State of New York amid concerns for the water and timber resources of the region. Today the Park is the largest publicly protected area in the contiguous United States, greater in size than Yellowstone, Everglades, Glacier, and Grand Canyon National Parks combined, and comparable to the size of the entire state of Vermont. The boundary of the Park encompasses approximately 6 million acres, 48 percent of which belongs to all the people of New York State and is constitutionally protected to remain “forever wild” forest preserve. The remaining 52 percent is private land, which includes communities, farms, timberlands, businesses, homes and seasonal camps. The Park, a vast, natural sanctuary, is within a day’s traveling distance of 70 million residents of the United States and Canada.
About the Adirondack Park Agency
The Adirondack Park Agency (“APA”) was created in 1971 by the New York State Legislature to develop long-range land use plans for both public and private lands within the boundary of the Park, commonly referred to as the “Blue Line.” The Agency prepared the State Land Master Plan, signed into law in 1972, followed by the Adirondack Park Land Use and Development Plan (“APLUDP”) in 1973. Both Plans are periodically revised to reflect changes and current trends and conditions. The Agency strives to conserve the Park’s natural resources and assure that development is well planned through administration of the Adirondack Park Agency Act (which includes the APLUDP and the regulations derived from it), the New York State Freshwater Wetlands Act, and the New York State Wild, Scenic and Recreational Rivers System Act.
Photo attachments:
Photo 1 - Nextel-Northville Tower simulation 
Photo 2 - Co-Location - Ski Jumps 
Photo 3 - Fort Ann Tower Location 