Friday, March 02, 2007
By MIKE PLAISANCE
mplaisance@repub.com

SPRINGFIELD - The City Council on Monday approved a zone change from residence to industrial for a small part of the property at 64 Napier St. where Acme Metals and Recycling Inc. has been operating since 1958.

The council also referred to committee a proposal from Omnipoint Holdings Inc., a division of T-Mobile of Bloomfield, Conn., to put a 150-foot-tall cell phone tower at 99 Arnold Ave.

Acme owner George R. Sachs, of Longmeadow, sought the zone change from Residence B to Industrial A for a rear portion of his property. He said he realized only recently that the section was zoned residential.

He learned of the residential zoning last year when he applied for a building permit from the city to replace a structure damaged by fire, Sachs told the Planning Board on Jan. 3.

The City Council on Jan. 29 unanimously approved Sachs' request for a special permit to build that 4,140-square-foot addition.

The council sent the cell tower proposal to its Planning and Economic Development Committee.

T-Mobile wants to put the tower, which a lawyer said is needed to improve coverage, on vacant property that formerly was a bus storage yard.

Responding to an aesthetic concern that the city Office of Planning and Economic Development raised, T-Mobile changed the type of tower planned for the site. Instead of the original monopole design with antenna platforms, the tower would look more like an unadorned flag pole, T-Mobile lawyer Simon J. Brighenti said.

Cynthia Thomas-Harris, of 120-122 Fargo St., said during a public hearing she opposed having a cell phone tower behind her home because of health concerns.

"I want to know how much radiation it's going to give off," Thomas-Harris said.

Brighenti said whatever radiation the tower would give off would be well within federal government standards.

"As we try to make these facilities work within the (city's) ordinance and as far as their appearance, we try to work" with the neighborhood, Brighenti said.

The council also granted a special permit to Bee-Line Corp. for the sale of secondhand truck trailer bodies at 95 Page Blvd. The business has been in operation since 1992, but its last permit expired in 1996, according to the Office of Planning and Economic Development.

In addition, the council unanimously agreed to amend a special permit for Ryder Truck Rental Inc. at 127 and 139 Page Blvd. That lets the company avoid having to paint parking lines designating identically sized spaces on its lot, which was a problem because of the many different sizes of trucks in use, Councilor William T. Foley said.