#rockland-monopole

Feb. 27 meeting
Rockland City Council plans public meeting with attorney to discuss small wireless facilities and 5G technology
Thu, 02/23/2023 - 3:45pm

ROCKLAND — “Something could be installed tomorrow and no one has to tell the City,” said Councilor Sarah Austin. “That’s my concern.” At a Feb. 13 vote of four to one, with Councilor Nicole Kalloch in opposition, the Rockland City Council agreed to proceed with a draft ordinance as a baseline of how cellular companies bring their business to the City. Currently, said Austin, “The door is wide open. The doors don’t even exist. If this passes tonight, it goes into effect in 30 days. The bottom...
Using their own money, Rockland Planning Board members retain attorney in cell tower legal dispute
Tue, 01/26/2021 - 8:45pm

ROCKLAND – A defense attorney specializing in cell tower litigation has been put on retainer for three members of the Rockland Planning Board caught up in a legal battle with Bay Communications, LLC. Days after the Planning Board requested, in their one executive session with the Rockland City Council, that Rockland provide them with an independent attorney from the one used by the City in this matter, the lack of City response led Planning Board members to take matters into their own hands...
opinion: ‘Let the light in. Leave the muzzles off by having a public meeting’
Louise MacLellan-Ruf: Muzzled by executive session? Perhaps
Tue, 01/19/2021 - 5:30pm

I am in an interesting position. Having not been involved in any Executive Sessions (ES) discussing the cell tower I am not bound by any confidentiality agreement. That may change this Wednesday. At which time, City Council, the City and the Planning Board (PB) may all be muzzled. An ES is scheduled this Wednesday to meet with the PB, Council and an attorney. To get up to speed, I attended a PB meeting a few weeks ago. The topic? Bay Communications and the cell tower. YOU ARE HEREBY NOTIFIED...
Cell tower business moves that City of Rockland, Planning Board be held in contempt of court
Thu, 01/14/2021 - 2:15pm

ROCKLAND — The ongoing controversy in Rockland concerning a proposed cellular tower to be constructed on Route 1 in a business/residential zone took another turn Jan. 13 when attorneys filed a motion with U.S. District Court claiming Rockland and its Planning Board are in contempt for “repeated and continuing failures to comply” with a Nov. 12, 2020 judgment. The attorneys, Drummond Woodsum in Portland, and Brown Rudnick LLP in Boston, represent Bay Communications III LLC, the private company...
Rockland Planning Board resistant to contempt of court threat regarding monopole settlement
Tue, 12/01/2020 - 9:15pm

ROCKLAND — “I don’t think this attorney has been fair to us,” said Board Chair Eric Laustsen. “I think he’s put us, personally, in jeopardy. And I resent that. We have had nothing to do with this made-up Findings and Facts. For us to have these threats –I don’t consider him my attorney, so his letter was threatening – Contempt of court, talking about fines on us personally. I didn’t like that.” For a brief few moments during the December 1, Rockland Planning Board meeting, in Council Chambers,...
‘We thought we had substantial reasons why we denied this application’
Rockland Planning Board on monopole settlement decision: What about us?
Tue, 11/10/2020 - 5:15pm
ROCKLAND — “I can guarantee you that none of us thought that we were on shaky ground,” said Rockland Planning Board Chair Eric Laustsen. “We thought we had substantial reasons why we denied this application.” The City of Rockland recently announced a settlement with Bay Communications, LLC, effectively allowing the construction of a communications tower on Camden Street after the LLC appealed the Rockland Planning Board denial of the telecommunication application. In response, Councilor Valli...
Building permit to be issued: ‘this battle in court is not winnable for the City of Rockland’
Rockland City Council issues statement following settlement over monopole lawsuit
Fri, 11/06/2020 - 4:30pm

ROCKLAND —A settlement has been reached between the private company that wanted to site a monopole in Rockland and the city. The settlement stipulates that Bay Communications, the City and the Rockland Planning Board all agree that the company be authorized to construct its facility in according to its site plan. Furthermore, the city is to instruct its Code Enforcement Department to issue a building permit (and electrical permit, if required) to Bay for the construction of the Facility within...
Rockland approves telecommunication tower ordinance language
Tue, 03/03/2020 - 3:30pm
ROCKLAND — Rockland City Council members have approved an ordinance and amended a special-use class ordinance as a way to further establish guidelines around future cell tower proposals within city limits. The action follows the recent application for a monopole to be sited on Camden Street (Route 1). That application was turned down by the Rockland Planning Board, but the discussion opened the door for the city to consider rules for governing the siting and erection of cell towers, in general...
Rockland Planning Board turns down permit application for Route 1 monopole
Wed, 02/19/2020 - 10:00am

ROCKLAND — In a 3 - 0 vote, with one abstention, an application to construct a cell tower on Camden Street in Rockland was denied by the Rockland Planning Board, Tuesday, Feb. 18. The applicant’s lawyer, however, has mentioned the right to appeal the vote in federal court, according to Board Chair Erik Laustsen. Despite the absence of two board members and the abstaining of a third member during the vote at the three-hour meeting, the Rockland Planning Board still held the quorum necessary to...
Rockland Planning Board postpones next review of cell tower application
Wed, 01/29/2020 - 12:00pm

ROCKLAND — A Rockland Planning Board meeting scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 4, to continue review of a proposed cell tower on Camden Street has been postponed until further notice while the City awaits the completion of an appraisal. Once the appraisal is done, the Planning Board will reschedule the meeting, according to the Rockland Code Office, in a news release. The Board intends to compare a still-pending independent housing appraisal by Bucklin LLC with that of two appraisals by the applicant...
Rockland starts work on telecom tower ordinance, predicts slow process
Tue, 01/14/2020 - 4:45pm

ROCKLAND — “Maybe there ought to be some way to catch balls that we dropped,” said Rockland City Councilor Valli Geiger. “But, indeed, we dropped a ball.” As many Rockland residents wondered, in this era of cellphones and communications towers, why Rockland has never considered creating a telecommunications tower ordinance, a further realization surfaced. In 2002, the City’s Comprehensive Plan Committee made such a suggestion. Yet that suggestion was communicated through writing buried deep...
Rockland citizens opposed to proposed cell tower fill city hall chamber
Wed, 01/08/2020 - 12:00pm

ROCKLAND — A mother of a child with heart problems. The family who coincidentally put their house on the market just as a monopole tower proposal became public and say they now are unable attract home buyers. The fear of falling steel. The reminders of design plans for a stretch of Route 1 corridor and the landscapes that draw tourists. By the end of a 2.5 hour Rockland Planning Board meeting, Tuesday, Jan. 7, to further consider an application for a 120-foot communications tower at 182 Camden...
Neighbors concerned about lights, height, environmental and health effects
Rockland Planning Board continues review of proposed 120-foot communications pole
Thu, 01/02/2020 - 6:45pm

ROCKLAND — The Rockland Planning Board will continue its consideration of an application from a Massachusetts business to site a 120-foot communications pole, topped with a 4-foot lightning rod, at 182 Camden Street, near Pen Bay Acres subdivision and on the Route 1 commercial corridor. The board is to make a site walk of the proposed location Tuesday, Jan. 7, at 3:30 p.m., followed by a full meeting at the Rockland City Hall Council Chambers at 5:15 p.m. The $150,000 monopole cell tower is...
Area would be surrounded by a six-foot tall chain link fence topped with three strands of barbed wire
Rockland Planning Board to review 120-foot cell tower proposal for Route 1 stretch
Mon, 11/04/2019 - 5:45pm

ROCKLAND — A company associated with AT&T is seeking Rockland’s approval to erect a $150,000, 120-foot monopole cell tower at 182 Camden Street (Route 1), which is a .79-acre lot currently owned by RT Properties LLC, whose address is at the Topsham Mall, in Topsham. The parcel abuts land on which Pizza Hut sits. Bay Communications LLC is headquartered in Mansfield, Massachusetts. The Rockland Planning Board meeting begins at 5:30 p.m., Nov. 5, in Rockland City Hall Council Chambers...