T-Mobile forced to withdraw plan for antenna in church steeple as still structurally inadequate

Barbara Ginger, who is with the Pilgrim Congregational Church, said she has not recently seen shingles fall off the steeple. She was testifying at the City Plan Commission meeting recently. Barbara Ginger, who is with the Pilgrim Congregational Church, said she has not recently seen shingles fall off the steeple. She was testifying at the City Plan Commission meeting recently. Photo: Mary E. O’Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media File Photo: Mary E. O’Leary / Hearst Connecticut Media File Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close T-Mobile forced to withdraw plan for antenna in church steeple as still structurally inadequate 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN — Installation of cellular antennas for T-Mobile inside a church steeple has been withdrawn over continuing structural issues and a critique that the company was putting the city on a “merry-go-round” of incomplete applications.

First submitted in October 2017, it has been before three meetings of the City Plan Commission, which twice had to have an outside engineer review the plans, which continue to be inadequate.

This was in addition to several meetings T-Mobile had with members of the Quinnipiac East/Fair Haven Heights Management Team, which covers the area where the Pilgrim Congregational Church is located at 69 East Grand Ave.

The proposal was to install six T-Mobile antennas at the 75-foot center line within the existing 120-foot church steeple of the church, which is located within the Quinnipiac Avenue National Register Historic District.

Attorney Jesse Langer, who was representing T-Mobile, told the commission at its meeting this month that it had met the siting requirements, but commission Chairman Edward Mattison made it clear that was not the issue.

“The (proposed) construction has not been shown to be adequate to maintain the existing steeple,” Mattison said.

Anne Hartjen, city senior project planner, said she was disappointed with the “lack of quality” of the application. “I’m tired of going around in circles,” she said.

She said it was not the job of the commission to continue to get outside help to advise them and subsequently the applicant, only to again receive an inadequate proposal.

“The commission and staff expect applications to be complete and of sufficient detail to enable construction of all elements; this application clearly does not meet that standard even after significant feedback,” staff wrote in a report to the commission.

Mattison said they have encountered this situation on other occasions where every month a new set of documents continue to be lacking and they don’t want to continue to be caught in this “merry-go-round.”

The staff wrote that T-Mobile had failed to take any responsibility “for analyzing the actual conditions on-site. Given the nature of historic buildings and their general design quirkiness, it would behoove the applicant to have as much empirical data as necessary to design a safe and adequate new structure. This lack of physical examination of the existing structure leaves significant doubt of the efficacy of the entire design.”

As for some technical details, the report said the timber frame carrying most of the dead load was not analyzed at the connection where the load from the new joists transfers to the support at the existing column.

T-Mobile did submit a 29-page report on its plans to the commission on Jan. 17, the day of the meeting, but staff did not have time to review it.

Marjorie Shansky, a land use attorney, who lives next door to the church, submitted an eight-page analysis which covered other concerns she has in addition to the lack of documentation on structural issues.

She said it was only in the latest report from T-Mobile that it addressed Section 49 of the zoning regulations.

“The word that comes to mind is hubris,” she said. “Applications should not be working on an incremental basis.”

She also said one of the documents in the T-Mobile package includes her property, as if it is owned by the church.

Shansky at previous meetings submitted examples of what she said were parts of the steeple that have fallen into her yard, the initial reason she had requested more scrutiny of its structural integrity.

She told the commission that the certificate of appropriateness” by the Historic District Commission failed to mention “disruption to the street facade” presented by an above-ground utility structure on the western walkway.

Shansky said the omission of this material in the Historic District Commission application renders T-Mobile’s special permit application ineligible for a special permit for failing to comply with the city’s zoning regulations.

She said the Historic District Commission, according to its minutes, also did not have a member at its hearing from the applicable district as required.

She told the commission that while “everyone has been looking up at the steeple,” other things have been missed. In addition to the above-ground utility, or condenser, there is a question as to where the stormwater will go if the walkway is being obstructed.

The attorney said the condenser protrudes into the egress from the church.

She said it is a violation of the building code “to obstruct or reduce the width of existing exit discharge paths to a public way.” It would reduce the walkway from 4 feet, 11 inches, to 2 feet, 11 inches, she said.

Shansky asked what is the decibel level associated with the utility and whether it operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. She said it would be 3 feet from a residential property line.

The attorney said the “burden of establishing eligibility for a special permit rests with the applicant who must demonstrate that all standards of the ordinance are met.” She said T-Mobile has failed to demonstrate this and she listed at least eight standards that allegedly have not been met.

“Stop the pain, let them start over at giddy-up speed with something complete,” Shansky told the commission in recommending that it be denied.

Mattison said he would recommend denial if the application is resubmitted, but continues to be incomplete.

A representative of the church, Barbara Ginger, also spoke at the Jan. 17 commission meeting.

With reference to the shingles that Shansky found in her yard, Ginger said the bell tower was repaired in 2012 and in the most recent inspection “nothing was missing from that steeple. It was in the same condition as it was in 2012.”

She said she does have some shingles missing from the front of the church that needs to be worked on and the back of the church also needs work.

Ginger surmised that the wood that Shansky presented “did not come from a recent wood falling off that bell tower. I don’t know what else to say except ... I had them go up there and check it out just to make sure it wasn’t falling in,” Ginger said.

She said she has seen pictures of the wood that T-Mobile had taken of the inside and “the roofer looked and we found nothing rotting, nothing caving in, nothing falling. It was structurally sound from what we saw.”

Ginger said she did not “go up into the cone, but they (T-Mobile) do.”

“It seemed fine. I’m not sure where the wood came from,” she said of Shansky’s exhibits.

Ginger said she would allow more inspections as requested. She said she wanted to testify so the commission knows what she is doing.

“I would never hurt my neighbors, ever,” Ginger said. She said they would never introduce anything that would have a negative impact.

Ginger, in answer to a question, said the congregation voted on the agreement with T-Mobile in the early fall.

Ginger said she knew that the condenser would be placed outside, but pointed out that there are other sources of noise in the area already.

“On East Grand Avenue there is a fire department right on the other side of me that goes out every 10 minutes. So sirens are going all the time, buses are coming stopping right in front of that church all the time. As for the condenser ... I don’t know how much more noise it would be. It’s a busy road,” Ginger said.

Shansky said the neighborhood had previously rejected T-Mobile’s plan to put a cell tower in Fairmont Park, but it did not reject putting it on top of a nearby nursing home. She said T-Mobile had incorrectly stated this.

mary.oleary@hearstmediact.com; 203-641-2577