THE UNION LEADER, Manchester, N.H., Thursday, December 26,1996
By JOSEPH DANIEL McCOOL
Union Leader Correspondent
LONDONDERRY - The Town Council has unanimously adopted what is believed to be New Hampshire's first municipal ordinance governing the location and use of wireless communications facilities.
The regulation, an amendment to the town zoning ordinances, provides a definition of such facilities, performance standards, and rules outlining the siting of rooftop and ground-based cellular telephone communication towers.
Peter C. Lowitt, the town's director of planning and economic development, said the need for such an ordinance was made clear when Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which paved the way for increased competition in the wireless communications industry.
"It's telecommunication technology that's driving regulation, said Lowitt, who added the ordinance was needed to protect townspeople's property values and to accommodate industry needs.
The ordinance was recommended for passage by the planning board and was the first adopted by the council since its transition from a board of selectmen.
It was written by Tim Thompson, a summer intern in Lowitt's office whose work on the document won him an award from the northern New England chapter of the American Planning Association at the Council's meeting Monday night.
Lowitt said the adoption of such regulation comes at an important time for the town.
"(Communities along) Interstate 93 and Londonderry, in particular, have seen a number of applications," for building or expanding wireless towers, Lowitt said.
The Nextel Tower off Ash Street Extension is the only wireless tower already located here, but Lowitt said one company has already applied for planning board approval to use the same tower and another wants to locate a tower east of Interstate 93.
Lowitt said the ordinance will prevent towers from changing the town's rural landscape.
We do require tower sharing as part of the ordinance...where physically and legally possible," he said.