10/15/11 update is highlighted like this sentence.

Click on image to enlarge

The East Moriches Fire Department acquired an acre of land on the Sunrise Highway north service road and Pine Street to build a substation to service the northern part of its District. (View a map of the District.) The lot had resulted from a subdivision conditioned on a covenant being recorded in 2006 that "Lot 3 shall be restricted for use by the-East Moriches Fire District as a fire district substation."

For several years, a representative of the Fire Department had periodically reported at EMPOA general meetings that the Department wanted to enter into an agreement allowing a cell tower to be built on this lot. Questions were raised, but no objections were expressed at the meetings.

In October 2010, the Department submitted a site plan to the Town. In its letter, it said it wanted to build a 120 foot monopole to improve its communication capability, and it reiterated its intention to build a substation later.

Apparently the 2006 covenant was brought up, and in July 2011 the Department submitted a Land Use Application and a Relief of Covenant Application asking for and interpretation of the covenant allowing the cell tower to be built. The applications also state that the tower would be for "collocation of other public and private entities".

The plan submitted calls for a 120' monopole near a 10' x 10' concrete pad, both within a 24' x 26' area surrounded by an 8' chain link fence with a gravel driveway leading to it from Pine Street. The installation is near the center of the lot, but a little closer to the corner of Pine and the service road.

The application is for relief of covenant was approved on 10/3/11. A site plan will still need to be reviewed and normally there would be a hearing on it. However, there may not be many issues left.