ZBA continues cell tower hearing, orders site walk

Zoning Board of Appeals · Meeting of July 29, 2026

Groton's Zoning Board of Appeals continued a hearing on a proposed 120-foot cell tower at Groton-Dunstable Regional High School, ordering a site walk before deciding on a setback variance. TowerCom C-PRV LLC wants to build the monopole roughly 110 feet from an existing maintenance building, far short of the town's 500-foot setback bylaw, citing 158.2 of the parcel's 186 acres as protected rare-species habitat. One board member said he personally walked an alternative site and found it "dead flat," contradicting TowerCom's engineering survey showing excessive slope there.

Another member said he "would not agree to a variance that left this tower 110 feet from the maintenance building." The board scheduled a site walk for Aug. 2 and a return hearing for Aug. 4, as TowerCom warned a federal 150-day review deadline expires at the end of August. The board also approved its July 1 minutes 4-0 and its July 15 minutes 2-0 with one abstention.

In the full story:

• Hearing Notice and Board Membership Dispute
• Correspondence From the School District and Residents
• Site Constraints: Wetlands, Rare Species Habitat and Setbacks
• The Variance Standard Under Revised State Law
• Carrier Commitments and Public Benefit Claims
• The Alternative-Site and Slope Dispute
• Structural Safety of the Proposed Tower
• Public Comment on Health and Property-Value Concerns
• Scheduling a Site Walk and the Federal Shot Clock
• Routine Business: Reorganization Postponed, Minutes Approved
• Who Was There
• Organizations And Documents Referenced
• The complete report: 2,044 words

Source: the Zoning Board of Appeals meeting of July 29, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.

Checked against the record: before publication this article was automatically compared with the meeting transcript.