Pepperell Planning Board approves Verizon Wireless church steeple cell site with generator conditions

PEPPERELL — May 22, 2017 — Pepperell Planning Board unanimously approved a Verizon Wireless antenna installation inside the Trinity Church Society steeple at 3 Townsend Street at its May 22 meeting. Victor Mnoudian of Verizon Wireless and David Vivian of Structured Consulting Group presented the minor site plan, which calls for six antennas hidden inside fiberglass steeple louvers, a 30-kilowatt diesel generator on a concrete pad, and an eight-foot wooden privacy fence with nine interior bollards on the northerly side of the building. The board conditioned approval on a written monthly maintenance schedule and required that the generator's weekly 20-minute test cycle be programmed for a weekday between 1 and 3 p.m. Highway Superintendent Peter Shattuck's comment letter had flagged diesel fuel storage, fence proximity to Heald Street, and noise concerns; the Massachusetts Historic Commission had already cleared the project, signing off on April 10 that it "will have no adverse effect on significant historic or archaeological properties." The board also unanimously approved a three-foot, four-inch side yard setback reduction for Michael Prey of 4 Suncook Drive for a two-car garage addition, sending Prey next to the Zoning Board of Appeals, and closed the meeting with an unresolved debate over the Planning Board's lack of communication about a state-funded Main Street corridor use study set to begin July 1.