GLENVILLE -- Glenville town planners gave final approval to a 115-foot cell tower this month following months of pushback from residents on Swaggertown Road, who petitioned to stop the project from moving forward.

The town's Planning and Zoning Commission gave final site plan approval for the project on Dec. 9, ending a monthslong review process that began last year and faced heavy criticism by residents, who expressed concerns about everything from depreciated property values to adverse health effects if the tower were built.

Cellco Partnership, a subsidiary of Verizon Wireless, first proposed constructing the tower on a small plot of leased land at 185 Swaggertown Road last year to address a lack of service in town in February 2023. The company has brought forward similar plans throughout the region in the months since, including neighboring Clifton Park.

But a group of Glenville residents immediately began pushing back on the project and organized it in an attempt to stop the tower from being built. Neighbors created a petition and collected dozens of signatures and even hired an attorney who specializes in cell towers as a way to ensure Cellco was following all local, state and federal laws before planners signed off on the project.

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Cell towers are regulated under the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996. The law, approved in 1996, provides local governments with limited input on where the towers can be sited.

At one point, the town agreed to bring in an outside consultant to review Cellco's proposal -- a process that delayed the project from moving forward for months.

The review, completed by William Johnson of the Rochester Institute of Technology, ultimately determined that the tower would address service gaps in the area and that the Swaggertown Road site was the only feasible location available to Cellco.

Johnson also determined that radio frequency emissions from the tower would be below the standard established by the Federal Communications Commission.

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Cellco had originally proposed constructing a standard monopole tower but agreed to instead construct a stealth "monopine" following input from the planning commission and community members.

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