The Waltham, MA, zoning board met again at an appeals meeting January 26, and again did not make a decision on a proposed 293-foot communications tower for Prospect Hill.
Wicked Local Waltham reported the zoning board was supposed to vote on the appeal of the cease and desist order issued by the city inspector last April, but the current tower owner’s attorney asked for a February 9, continuance.
The tower was originally built as a 75-foot tower in 1962, “for personal use as wireless communication.” Its height was extended in the 1980s and it has multiple purposes, from Internet providers to a bus company. In March of last year, the zoning board approved a proposal to take down the tower and put up a new one in the same area. Wicked Local reports that a month later, the city’s Inspector of Buildings, William Forte, issued the cease and desist order and a “remove or make safe order, claiming that commercial use of the tower is not permitted and illegal.”
Forte also claimed that parts of the tower were dangerous and unsafe. Forte’s lawsuit came last December, asking for an injunction against the owners “to prevent them from using the tower or the property for any reason until the determination of the case, to evict any commercial tenants on the tower, to not allow them to use any parkland to access the area, and to ask them to put up a fence with a warning sign around the tower.” Forte also said that previous counsel for the owners claimed in March, 2014, that the “tower had parts that were hollow and rusted out.”
The owners have been appealing since July, 2015. No matter what the zoning board decides, that decision also will be automatically appealed and go before the Land Court.
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