On June 18, 2004, Cellco Partnership dba Verizon Wireless submitted to the Connecticut Siting Council (Council) a petition for a declaratory ruling that no Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need (Certificate) is required to install a 40-foot stealth flagpole telecommunications tower on the roof of the existing Howard Johnson Hotel at 1052 Boston Post Road in the Forest Heights section of Milford, Connecticut (Forest Heights cell site). On July 8, 2004, Philip T. Ashton of the Council and Derek Phelps of the Council staff met Kenneth C. Baldwin, Esq., of Robinson & Cole, LLP, for a field review of this petition in Milford, Connecticut.

Cellco currently experiences significant capacity problems along I-95 and Boston Post Road (Route 1), near interchange 39 in Milford. Cellco’s existing Milford, Milford S and Milford S II facilities are currently operating at capacity during the peak hours and cannot provide adequate and reliable wireless service to customers in the Forest Heights area. The Forest Heights cell site is essentially equidistant between the existing Milford S and Milford S II cell sites and allows Cellco to provide the much needed capacity relief for these two sites and to a lesser extent, other sites in the immediate vicinity.

The Hotel is a four-story (approximately 47 feet above ground level (AGL)) structure located at 1052 Boston Post Road, north of Boston Post Road and south of I-95 in Forest Heights, Milford (Property). The Property is surrounded by densely developed commercial and industrial land uses along Boston Post Road. An adult condominium complex abuts the Property to the west. The Property is otherwise bounded by Route 1 and the Kings Highway Cemetery to the south; and I-95 and Route 1 to the north and east.Cingular Wireless currently maintains a telecommunications facility consisting of twelve (12) panel antennas attached to a 12’ x 20’ equipment shelter on the roof of the Hotel.

Cellco intends to install a new stealth flagpole tower and a 12’ x 30’ equipment shelter on the roof of the Hotel. The flagpole and shelter will rest on a steel platform. The flagpole tower will extend 40 feet above the roof of the existing building. The Cellco equipment shelter will extend approximately 12 feet above the roof of the building. Cellco will attach a total of six (6) internally-mounted antennas inside the flagpole structure; three (3) antennas approximately 82’-5" AGL and three (3) antennas approximately 76’-5" AGL. Power density levels from the proposed installation will not exceed the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) recommended safety levels adopted by the State of Connecticut at C.G.S. §§ 22a-162 and 22a-162a or those standards adopted by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) pursuant to the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. Worst-case power density calculations for the replacement tower are 53.55% Maximum Permissible Exposure.

Construction is anticipated to occur by the end of October, 2004. Staff recommends approval.