GUILDERLAND — The businesses and residences in Guilderland Center would benefit from better high-speed wireless coverage if it is allowed to build a 120-foot monopole telecommunications tower on Hurst Road, says Verizon.

The company is applying to build the tower on a 2.4-acre wooded parcel owned by the town, at 5075 Hurst Rd. Coverage would be improved in an area bounded by Western Avenue to the north, Tawasentha Park to the east, Northeastern Industrial Park to the south, and Depot Road/Route 146 to the west, according to the application.

The parcel is in a rural-agricultural zoning district, where a cell tower is not an allowed use, so the applicant, Tarpon Towers, is seeking a special-use permit. If approved, Tarpon would lease the land from the town. It would fence a 70-by-70-foot area around the tower with chain-link fencing.

The area where Verizon says coverage would be improved includes Guilderland High School, the Guilderland Water Department, and the businesses and residences in Guilderland Center and on Route 146 to Route 20.

Jacqueline Coons, the town’s acting chief building and zoning inspector, said, “They say it might help the dead area here, too,” referring to town hall.

Other carriers — Sprint/Nextel, Omnipoint, and AT&T — were notified of Verizon’s application to build a tower, the tower’s ability to support three additional wireless telecommunications carriers, and how to make a request for co-location.

Thomas Remmert, chairman of the zoning board of appeals, told The Enterprise that Verizon would be required to “provide reasonable accommodation” for other carriers on the tower.

Tarpon’s application says that there are no existing towers in the area that provide sufficient fourth-generation long-term evolution, or 4G LTE — or fourth-generation Long Term Evolution — coverage in this area, and submitted a radio-frequency analysis that it says shows this. Verizon says that 4G LTE is the fastest way to get data through mobile devices.

Verizon currently makes use of these towers in the area: the water tank behind the Fort Hunter firehouse, a tower off Foundry Road, a monopole off Wormer Road, and a National Grid power structure off Hawes Road. It is in the process of co-locating antennas on the existing National Grid tower adjacent to the town hall.

The Hurst Road site was chosen for several reasons, according to the application. The surrounding area is mostly open, but this site is wooded, reducing visibility. The 120-foot height, rather than 100 feet, is needed, says the application, to reach all parts of the intended coverage area.

The next step in the application process, said Coons, is for Tarpon Towers to do a balloon test — setting up a balloon at 120 feet at the proposed location. Such tests allow residents to see how the tower would look.

Remmert called the project “probably the easiest tower we ever did,” noting that no residents have expressed opposition, although one who lives nearby, Michael Smollar, had asked several questions about location, color, and other details.

Corner lot privacy fences

The board also heard two variance requests from two neighbors across the street from one another in the Twenty West development for six-foot privacy fences in side yards. Twenty West is a new clustered subdivision of luxury homes in central Guilderland, off French’s Mill Road and Western Avenue, near the town hall.

Some Twenty West residents spoke against the fences, saying residents had signed contracts prohibiting privacy fencing.

As Remmert said, both of these yards are corner lots, which means that they abut two streets. The town’s zoning code defines a front yard as a yard that abuts a street, and so these properties, Remmert said, “have two front yards.”

The town unanimously approved the application of Chelsea and Sam Enbawe of 298 Millingstone Way to put in a six-foot-tall solid white solid privacy fence 25 feet from the street.

The board voted, 4 to 1, to approve, with conditions, the application by Leni St. Martin for a similar fence at 300 Millingstone Way, a home owned by Jeannette Ferrucci. The fence at this property has already been installed.

The conditions are that St. Martin must put in colorful landscaping in front of the fence, to break up the white expanse, and move the fence 15 feet back. That fence is currently just 10 feet from the road, but must be at least 25 feet from the road, the board said, so that landscaping can be placed clearly within the homeowner’s property, rather than within the town’s right-of-way.

St. Martin reminded the board that the town had issued a building permit allowing the fence to be built. Remmert said that the location of the fence specified in the permit would not have required a variance, but that the fence was not built in that location. St. Martin said the work had been left to the fence company, with the expectation that the company would build it properly.

Remmert said that, by regulation, the board could not consider the fact that the fence was already up, but needed to treat the application as if the fence had not yet been built.

Several neighbors spoke against both fences and said that everyone in the development had signed a contract, upon buying their homes, disallowing privacy fences; open-style wrought-iron fences are allowed, said one neighbor.

Board member Jacob Crawford cast the one dissenting vote, saying that he was comfortable with the fence the way it is now, provided that the applicant adds the landscaping, which St. Martin had agreed to do.

Remmert said that the zoning board cannot enforce contractual matters between homeowners and developers that may differ from one neighborhood to another; it can only enforce town regulations that apply everywhere.

One neighbor asked why she signed the agreement prohibiting privacy fences when she bought her home, and Remmert said that that was a matter for the neighbor to take up with her attorney; he added that he was in a similar situation at his own home.

Decision on boat parking

The board voted unanimously to deny the application by Kellie Baldwin for a variance to permit the parking and/or storage of a boat in her front yard, at 11 Fletcher Rd. This was the first case under the new zoning code.

Remmert had received, “I think, 10 letters from different neighbors, all in opposition to it,” he said. But two were anonymous, he said, adding, “I don’t put too much credence in an anonymous letter.”

This matter came before the zoning board on Dec. 7, and at that time several neighbors spoke in favor of Baldwin’s request, saying that they have no problem with the boat and that Baldwin is a good neighbor.

Crawford said he didn’t completely agree with the way that that portion of the zoning code is written. He said it seemed reasonable, for instance, for someone to take a boat out of storage one night and then take it out onto a lake the next day.

Remmert said the board’s hands were tied, and that approving Baldwin’s request would start “a flood of such requests.”

He added that approving the request would be equivalent to amending the zoning code, which is the purview not of the zoning board but of the town board.

Remmert suggested that the town board might want to revisit the issue of boats in driveways and “clarify whether it should be allowed, to park overnight or for a certain amount of time.”