SOUTHWICK – At its Dec. 1 meeting, the Southwick Planning Board once again continued a public hearing over a proposed Verizon cell tower off of Liberty Lane.

To start the meeting’s discussion, Planning Board Chair Michael Doherty explained that he had to recuse himself from all future hearings because of a conflict because his home could be impacted by a change in property values because of the tower.

“In my mind it’s a no-win situation. No matter which way I go there is some question whether or not the fact that it could impact my property played a role or whether I intentionally chose to ignore it. There are a lot of problems that could arise from that,” he said.

With Doherty recusing himself from the hearing, Vice Chair Marcus Phelps took over the hearing for the evening.

Verizon engineer Jay Latorre said that one of the problems with an alternative location in Parcel 5 the lower elevation at that location.

“We looked at each of these three locations and needed to evaluate the ground elevation relative to our existing proposal off Foster Road. The entirety of Lot 5 is lower in elevation relative to the Foster Road location. At Site B we can build a tower that is hypothetically the same overall height, but to do that we have to build a tower that is 28 feet taller in size,” he said.

For this meeting, nearly 70 of the residents that would be affected by the tower hired a lawyer, Andrew Campanelli, an attorney specializing in the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, to represent their case against the tower.

“In this case no prohibitive data has been submitted. Typically, local governments will enact zoning ordinances to protect against unnecessary adverse aesthetic impacts or reduction in property values, and your code provides that. This applicant has not established granting this application will follow your code,” he said.

Campanelli added that by looking up the proposed location for the cell tower, there is not a coverage gap at that location.

“They are claiming a gap in service and their data is available on Verizon’s website. If you do a search for coverage maps and type in this location, Verizon’s website shows you two things, gaps in coverage and the level of service. The website indicates Verizon has no significant gaps in the precise location they want to put the tower,” he said.

With letters from real estate brokers discussing a potential drop in property values in hand, Campanelli said there was significant evidence to deny the tower.

“Exhibit B in our presentation are letters from real estate brokers saying if you put this tower where they want to put it, it’s going to reduce the value of nearby homes from anywhere from 15 to 30 percent. Under federal law this constitutes substantial evidence,” he said.

After Campanelli’s presentation, board member Jessica Thornton said that she had several concerns over moving forward with the tower at the proposed location off Liberty Lane.

“I wanted to address the three things identified in the previous legal decisions brought up by Attorney Campanelli. The first is the identification of a significant gap supported by prohibitive data, the second being the plan presented is the only solution, and the third that there is a minimal intrusion on the community, which I cannot imagine any reasonable person who has listened to the last 12 hours of testimony would agree to,” she said.

After Campanelli’s comments and comments from the board, Attorney Michael Fenton, representing Verizon, said they would respond in writing to the claims.

“We will respond to Attorney Campanelli’s memorandum in writing. There were a whole bunch of statements in there we would like an opportunity to provide a full response to, and we will do so before the next hearing,” he said.

While members of the board wanted to schedule two balloon floats, one at 120 feet and another at 140 feet after Campanelli explained the Middle Class Tax Act of 2012 allowed towers to go up to 20 feet higher than what is proposed, the Verizon representatives were not willing to do so.

“Our proposal is for a 120-foot tower, not a 140-foot tower. That would require a variance and Verizon is unwilling to do a balloon flight above its proposed tower height,” he said.

Ultimately, the board and representatives from Verizon agreed to conduct a balloon float on Dec. 12 from 8 a.m. to noon and on Dec. 14 from noon to 4 p.m. and as part of the tests, abutters agreed to allow Verizon workers on their properties to take pictures of the test.

The Southwick Planning Board next meets on Dec. 15.