HEATH — Voters at this year’s Annual Town Meeting will be asked to consider amending the bylaws on accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and wireless service facilities to be consistent with state law, while also adding some special permit requirements and clarifying some definitions.

If approved, the amended bylaws would require applicants seeking to construct wireless service facilities to conduct drive tests around the geographic location of the proposed facility and measure signal strength, and present drive test and dropped call data to the Planning Board to consider during the special permit application process.

“We want real data. We want drive test data and dropped call data,” Planning Board Chair Doug Mason told the Selectboard last week. “That’s really what we’re changing here. We’re adding some definitions to be more clear and to match the state’s definitions, and we’re adding those two things.”

The proposal would give the Planning Board more power over how many and which cellular networks can operate in town, Mason said. Verizon and AT&T have expressed interest in setting up 5G wireless service in Heath. Requiring drive test and dropped call data would allow the board to review service coverage and prevent potentially cheaper, low-quality networks from coming to town and drawing customers away from Heath’s broadband service, which also offers cell service, through Whip City Fiber.

“One of the reasons we got these changes through now is we have invested a lot of money in a fiber network in this town,” Planning Board member Bill Fontes said. “If some company comes in and puts 5G wireless up on the poles, [it could] put us out of business.”

“I just want to have control and be able to have the Planning Board say, ‘This is what we need and this is what we want,’” Mason added.

Other proposed amendments include reorganizing the bylaw and adding definitions for cell towers, distributed antenna systems, historic structures, small wireless facilities and more.

As for the town’s ADU bylaw, the Planning Board is recommending changing references to accessory apartments to accessory dwelling units, and adding the state’s definition of an ADU. To be consistent with a state law that went into effect in February, board members are also changing the maximum square footage allowed for an ADU from 800 to 900, and removing a requirement that the property owner must live on the site of the ADU.

“We’ve basically changed the definitions so it matches the state definitions,” Mason said. “The only thing we really changed other than adding definitions was increasing the square feet from 800 to 900.”

Lastly, in Section 3 on zoning districts, the Planning Board is proposing updating the definition of “streets” to include private ways, public ways and statutory ways, and replacing references to private ways, public ways and statutory ways, with streets. These changes are recommended by town counsel.

“There’s no substantive changes,” Mason said.

Additional definitions, such as “frontage” and “setback,” will need to be amended to take into account the revised definition of “streets.”

The Selectboard is expected to vote on whether to recommend the bylaw changes for inclusion on the Annual Town Meeting warrant during its April 1 meeting. A public hearing on the proposed amendments has not yet been scheduled.

Reach Madison Schofield at 413-930-4579 or mschofield@recorder.com.