Town of New Lebanon

TOWN WANTS TOWERS TO FADE FROM VIEW:

The Town Board plans to add language to the cell tower ordinance requiring all towers to use stealth technology that hides them from view, protecting New Lebanon's mountainous scenery.

The town's sole tower, Nextel's 110-foot structure on Route 20, rises above the trees on the side of a hill facing the highway.

There's a tradeoff here in that camouflaged towers can't be built as high as regular towers, so more towers will be needed to provide coverage. There is also some legal question about a municipality's authority to force an applicant to build multiple sites where one regular tower would suffice. I suspect companies may balk at the town spending money like that for them.