'FRANKENPINE' LURCHES
BACK TO LABORATORY
Nextel Partners Call Halt to Public Hearings, Return to Drawing
Board In Last-Minute Scramble to Change Design of Fake Pine Tree
Cell Tower
For more information:
John F. Sheehan, Communications Director
518-432-1770 (w)
518-441-1340 (cell)
Released, Wednesday, October
27, 2004
FORT ANN, N.Y. -- Hearings scheduled
on a proposed fake pine tree cell tower on the scenic, undeveloped
eastern shore of Lake George have been postponed by a flurry
of last-minute changes in the project by the applicant, communications
giant NEXTEL PARTNERS.
The fake pine tree project was dubbed the "Frankenpine"
by the Adirondack Council, which is opposed to its placement
inside the Adirondack Park, New York's six-million-acre wilderness
reserve.
The Adirondack Park Agency had slated a formal public hearing
to begin on November 9 to determine the fate of NEXTEL's permit
application. The hearing has now been postponed until the parties
can meet in the next few days and start the whole process over
again.
"I think NEXTEL realized its proposal was fatally flawed
and would never be approved by the Park Agency as it is currently
designed," said Adirondack Council Executive Director Brian
L. Houseal. "NEXTEL has voluntarily suspended the hearings
in order to rework its stormwater runoff plan, and has unilaterally
decided to drop the height of the proposed tower from 114 feet
to 104.
"These modest gestures are steps in the right direction,
but we still don't like the idea of steel and plastic fake pine
trees in the Adirondack Park and we aren't convinced that this
site is appropriate for any project that would alter the scenic
landscape," Houseal said. "Local residents, as well
as the art community, are very upset with this proposal as well.
This project has serious problems. A last-minute fit of panic
on the part of the applicant only seems natural."
A new hearing schedule, if NEXTEL wants to proceed, will be hammered
out among the parties to the adjudicatory hearing conducted by
a state administrative law judge. The eleven commissioners of
the Adirondack Park Agency, a regional planning agency operated
by the state, will decide on whether to grant a permit to NEXTEL
after the hearing has closed.
The Adirondack Council, the Town of Fort Ann, a citizens' group
known as PROTECT and the Lake George Waterkeeper and RCPA have
all expressed opposition to the NEXTEL proposal and are participating
in the public hearing.
The Adirondack Council's mission is to ensure the ecological
integrity and wild character of the Adirondack Park. Founded
in 1975, the Adirondack Council is an 18,000-member, privately
funded, not-for-profit organization with offices in Elizabethtown
and Albany.
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