OTISFIELD — Friends of Scribner Hill has filed a second administrative appeal with the Appeals Board regarding approval of an 180-foot telecommunications tower on Scribner Hill.
The three-page document dated Sept. 17 contends the Planning Board did not follow due process in accordance with the Otisfield Wireless Telecommunications Facility Siting Ordinance and other pertinent ordinances.
The appeal also lists a host of concerns over the approval, including the risk to public health, 16 abutters not properly notified and the visual impact on a scenic resource, namely Heniger Park.
“Our Planning Board did not follow our ordinances during the application and approval of U.S. Cellular’s application,” the appeal said. “Not only did they disregard or gloss over pertinent parts of our ordinances, they also did not follow proper notification procedures to give the citizens of Otisfield our right to due process.”
The Planning Board approved the application Jan. 17. In February, John Poto appealed to the Board of Appeals, which unanimously denied it March 20.
In June, Friends of Scribner Hill filed suit in Oxford County Superior Court, asking that the Board of Appeals decision be overturned and remand the matter back to the Planning Board for a full hearing.
Justice Robert Clifford ordered the Planning Board to write down the facts it used to make its decision and the conclusions of law reached regarding those facts. The board did so Aug. 7 and sent the document to the court, where a decision is pending.
On Friday, Selectman Rick Micklon called the group’s move “ironic.”
“How could the Planning Board rule on something the judge hasn’t ruled on yet? We find it ironic that the same people who put it in their (Oxford County Superior Court) hands have now put it in the hands of an Appeals Board.”
Micklon said the appeal has been given to the town’s attorney to determine if it is legally appropriate, considering the entire permitting issue is in the court’s hands.
Friends of Scribner Hill say they and others in the community believe selectmen are trying to portray the group as having a “not in our backyard” mentality. The group has said it supports better wireless coverage in town.
“People in the community are becoming quite upset by all of this,” Kristen Roy, a plaintiff in the court suit, said in an email to the Sun Journal. “The behavior of the Appeals Board, CEO and selectmen just doesn’t make sense. We believed these people are supposed to work on behalf of the citizens of Otisfield. We have legitimate concerns about how this was handled and how little concern was given to the town and the people.”
ldixon@sunjournal.com
Send questions/comments to the editors.
