Besides the lack of abutter and community notification, the address for the permit is listed as 877 South Street, which implies behind the office building located at that address–not within 300 feet of houses on residentially zoned land, adjacent to a residential neighborhood. The permit was issued without a special permit meeting, which would have alerted our city councilors.  The permit was also issued in 2017, and after two years with no construction, the permit lapsed and should have been re-permitted.  Instead, it wasn’t.  Construction happened to coincide with the Covid-19 quarantine when government offices, courts and organizations that could offer help were shuttered and overwhelmed with the pandemic. 

Yes. It was not in their permit to access the work site through Plumb and Alma Streets.  They construction company created an access point by cutting down trees, leveling the land and covering a new road in woodchips to make it useable by work trucks and construction vehicles.  Even after the head of the Pittsfield DPW notified the construction company that it could not access the site this way, vehicles continued to use it, remarking to residents that it was easier, faster and less congested than getting their trucks up the unfinished South Street road. 

The section of land Verizon is building the tower on is zoned residential and has a height restriction of 35 feet. Verizon, in their permit application states that: “the height of the tower will not be substantially detrimental and there will be minimum visual impacts to the surrounding community.” As none of us knew about the tower, none of us could argue that at a height of 115 feet, with capacity to extend to 150 feet, the tower will be visible from south Pittsfield, be extremely detrimental and create significant visual impacts to both the abutting properties and the neighborhood. 

The cell tower is a metal industrial structure, with electrical panels, a diesel generator, an enclosed chain link fence compound with barbed wire that will house the 115 foot monopole and the potential 48 cellular antennas that it is equipped to hold. This will blight the landscape, be out of keeping with the neighborhoods residential characteristics and be an eyesore.  Towers can and do collapse and catch fire. Right now these neighborhoods are known for their rural, untouched beauty, natural environment, sweeping views of the mountains and abundant wildlife, flora and fauna surrounding them.   We want to keep it that way.

Few towers are located close to residential neighborhoods, nonetheless, deep inside on, within 300 feet of families with children, elderly, retirees and homemakers.  If this tower goes through, it sets a precedent that towers of this magnitude can be built anywhere, without all abutters being notified, without community awareness or transparency.  

Neighbors discovered the cell tower project because construction vehicles were illegally accessing Plumb and Alma Streets to begin land clearing during the Covid-19 shut in March, 2020. After contacting councilor Christopher Connell, who contacted people in city hall who were unaware of the construction, a resident called the construction company to ask what was being built and discovered it was a cell tower.

No. Verizon’s coverage page on their website clearly indicates no gap or lack of coverage in the area the tower will serve.  Towers are denied when they cannot prove that they meet a need, and in this case, there is no demonstrated or clear need.

See Map of Coverage Area for Pittsfield, MA

If the judge grants the injunction to stop work until there can be proper abutter notification, it goes back to a zoning meeting to allow the neighbors and the community a chance for their voices to be heard. 

In that case we need the community to voice their disapproval of allowing a cell tower permit on land zoned residential with a 35 foot height restriction at the top of a neighborhood with so many children, families and homes within an unsafe radius.

Presently, the legal requirement is to notify all 300 foot abutters by mail AND print a legal notification prior to the zoning board meeting.

In that case we need the community to voice their disapproval of allowing a cell tower permit on land zoned residential with a 35 foot height restriction at the top of a neighborhood with so many children, families and homes within an unsafe radius.

Yes, it can go up at least 150 feet. With new 2020 Pittsfield cell tower ordinances, instead of building new infrastructure, the preference will be to continue to add onto old ones. This is frightening for our neighborhood. The greater number of antennas, the greater the EMF's which increases the documented risk for cancer and illnesses caused by EMF exposure. 

Jeff Clemons, Building inspector, was the first to come out to the site and offer support.  He pointed us in the direction of zoning ordinances and provided much needed reassurance and solidarity to our neighborhood.  Ricardo Morales, head of the Department of Public Works, came out to the site and notified the construction workers they could not access Plumb and Alma to reach the South St site.  When verbal and written notification failed, Ricardo put up police tape, signs and ultimately a concrete block to physically stop access.  When smaller trucks came up, he sent his DPW work trucks up to help keep an eye on the area so that it would not be family’s job to police the area.  Our neighborhood is very grateful for both Jeff and Ricardo. CJ Hass and Nate Joyner provided permit details and Deanna Ruffer provided us with information about the requirement to send multiple letters to abutters.  At a time when offices were closed, we are grateful for the permitting department to getting back to us so quickly and providing us with information and education on the permitting process. 

State Representative Tricia Farley-Bouvier, Councilor Christopher Connell, Councilor at Large Peter White, Councilor at Large Yuki Cohen, Councilor Patrick Kavey, Councilor Dina Guiel Lampiasi and Councilor Kevin Morandi all support revisiting the 877 South Street Permit and create better permitting and notification practices. Councilor at Large Earl Persip, III, Councilor Nicholas Caccamo, and Councilor Anthony Maffucio support looking at the permitting practices, extending abutter notification and coming up with viable solutions to improve notification. We are waiting on the rest to respond to our May 22 letter for support and will update this list as answers are returned to us. We wish to extend our gratitude to these elected officials for their responsiveness, support and solidarity at this time. It means the world to our neighborhood to have their support.