ASHFIELD — Broadband and telecommunications facilities will be on the table at a special town meeting on Monday in the Town Hall at 7 p.m.
The Planning Board has proposed revisions to the zoning bylaws. This includes adding an associate Planning Board member to act on special permit applications, whenever the board doubles as the town’s special permit granting authority.
Among proposed changes to the telecommunication facilities regulations is a rule that antennas that don’t exceed height requirements will be allowed without a special permit. The town’s height restrictions require a special permit for any building or structure (including towers) that are at least 50 feet above the average grade, within 25 feet of a building or structure.
Siting conditions were added to the zoning regulations, including the following: that the applicant be prepared to install the most appropriate, up-to-date camouflage if it will lessen impacts of neighborhood character; that setbacks for cell towers must be at least 10 times their height from existing public school boundaries, town-owned parks and the town’s historic district; and that towers must be set back five times their height from existing residences and buildings unless a right-of-way is obtained from their homeowner.
Changes to special permit regulations would require the applicant to submit any environmental impact studies required by the Federal Communications Commission to the town as part of the special permit application. Also, an amendment says adding a new antenna to an existing conforming or special-permitted tower would not require a special permit, as long as the new antenna does not make the structure nonconforming (or more nonconforming than its special permit allows.)
The town will ask voters to let the Selectboard serve as the town’s “Municipal Lighting Plant” board, to meet state requirements for the town’s future broadband build out. The “Municipal Lighting Plant” (MLP) legislation from the early 1900s has been used to enable towns to build and operate broadband networks in towns that have no broadband access. Recently, representatives from the Massachusetts Broadband Institute (MBI) advised Ashfield to designate an MLP board to oversee its fiber optic buildout process.
Other articles propose money transfers for the following expenses:
$4,000 to the Information Technology Account.
$10,000 to cover an appropriation shortage in the General Highway Expense Account.
$4,000 to pay for repairs to the Ashfield Lake dock.
An undisclosed sum for a town classification and compensation study.