Planning Board Tightens Up Water Tank Bylaw Proposal
Specific Addresses Added and Limits Antennas To Prohibit Cell Phone Antennas
At its February 26th meeting the Planning Board presented an amended water tank bylaw that addresses several key concerns voiced by residents. Some were concerned the bylaw might allow structures to be build to that height in other parts of town. The amended bylaw proposal specifies it applies to municipal water tanks at 3 specific addresses, so no other sites or private uses besides municipal water tanks are allowed by the bylaw change being proposed. The Planning Board also responded to concerns by those claiming the bylaw would allow cell towers to be placed on top of the tanks by being clearer that only town antennas for fire, police or to communicate with the tank itself to monitor tank functioning are allowed on the new water tanks.
The draft amended bylaw proposal is at: https://www.westonma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/39742/Amended-Water-Tank-Heights
The Planning Board will be meeting again Wednesday night March 5 to approve the amended bylaw. The meeting will be on Zoom at 6:30 at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86073094497. [UPDATE: A recording of the meeting can be found here: https://imd0mxanj2.execute-api.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/ssr/watch/67ca07440ed66100086e05de
As background, the zoning bylaw proposal is mainly in response to the preliminary water tank design which indicated that in order to meet the current town’s needs for water pressure for low pressure areas of town, and for adequate firefighting volumes of water during very dry summer periods, the tanks needed to be 40 ft higher than current zoning laws allowed, specifically 410 ft above sea level. When the tanks were built, many decades ago, the town was much less populated, had fewer if any estates that used town drinking water for landscape irrigation, and had fewer golf courses using town water for watering their grounds.
As background, the zoning bylaw proposal is mainly in response to the preliminary water tank design which indicated that in order to meet the current town’s needs for water pressure for low pressure areas of town, and for adequate firefighting volumes of water during very dry summer periods, the tanks needed to be 40 ft higher than current zoning laws allowed, specifically 410 ft above sea level. When the tanks were built, many decades ago, the town was much less populated, had fewer if any estates that used town drinking water for landscape irrigation, and had fewer golf courses using town water for watering their grounds.