Decision Made About Verizon Cell Tower On Richard Gere's Bedford Land

BEDFORD, NY — The Town of Bedford Planning Board made a unanimous decision on controversial plans to erect a cell tower on land co-owned by Richard Gere.

At Monday night's Town of Bedford Planning Board Meeting, the agenda included considering Verizon's "application for a special use permit, steep slopes and site plan for a wireless telecommunications facility" at 954 Old Post Road, a property co-owned by Richard Gere.

SEE ALSO: Richard Gere Offer To Allow Cell Tower On Property Met With Skepticism

At last night's meeting, the board addressed public concerns that the environmental impact of building the tower at the new site hasn't been properly explored.

"There’s been quite a lot of discussion behind this application — it’s not an application as we all know that appeared entirely in a vacuum," Chairperson Deirdre Courtney-Batson said. "We’ve been dealing with the issues that are raised by the need to find a proper place for a cell tower in this part of Bedford for quite some time. The board has been working on these issues for quite some time. So, although it may seem that there was less time given to this application than to the previous applications for us, there has not been any less consideration for it by any means."

Courtney-Batson said that the board members not only carefully considered a wide range of public comments, but also went out to people’s properties and looked at the balloon tests in person.

"We questioned ourselves, we questioned our consultants, we have done everything we can to take a hard look at this application as is required by SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) and the law and by our own consciences. And the decisions we make are based on that hard look," Courtney-Batson said. "I would ask the public to disagree if you will, people will always disagree about issues like this, but don’t assume it’s because we didn’t look at it carefully. And not because we didn’t care. We do. We had a difficult decision to make and we made it but we made it and in the process of making it after taking due consideration of everything there is to consider on the issue."

In the end, the board voted unanimously to accept that the tower will "not have any significant adverse effects upon the environment."

"I think assessing the sites for cell towers in Bedford has been a long and arduous, and very humbling job," Vice Chairman Diane Lewis said in public comments. "And I think everyone on the board is empathetic with and really tries to be with everyone in town and everyone needs cell coverage, and everyone who doesn't want the intrusion into the bucolic landscape that they love and resolve to reside here to enjoy."

The board voted unanimously to conditionally approve the project. Town officials have framed the issue as a matter of public safety, rather than convenience.

"I think the Old Post Road site provides much better coverage to many areas of Bedford Village, especially where emergency responders have told us they need it most," Lewis said before voting. "And so much more than either Stone Hill Road or Hickory Lane, this site is also much less visually intrusive than either of the other two."

Several conditions will still have to be met along the way, according to the board. The planning board will retain jurisdiction over the project as plans progress.

The out-of-the-box solution to Bedford's legal woes with Verizon ended up creating a whole new controversy last fall and was met with allegations of special treatment and quid pro quo favors.

Richard Gere, who co-owns the Bedford Post Inn with real estate magnate Russell Hernandez, offered up some land on the inn's 14-acre property for a proposed 130-foot cellphone tower. Bedford is facing a lawsuit filed by Verizon after the Bedford Planning Board rejected two previously proposed cell tower sites. The town was under increasing pressure to approve a site for the tower that is federally mandated to fill service gaps and improve communications that emergency responders might need to rely on.

While Gere's offer seemed like a perfect solution, neighbors said there was more to the offer than meets the eye.

The proposed deal was even called into question from a surprising quarter.

Roxanne Spruance, The Bedford Post Inn's executive chef and the co-owner of the property's Michelin-rated bistro, The Barn, said last month that the apparently gregarious deal to allow a cell tower on the property is more self-serving than altruistic. Spruance told the Bedford Planning Board at meetings on Dec. 5 and Dec. 19 that the strictly enforced environmental standards that had been in place for as long as she has operated her business, seemed to vanish after the cell tower proposal was announced.

"I just want to make it very clear that the restaurant and the hotel are very separate," Spruance told the Bedford Planning Board on Dec. 5. "It’s wild to me that the approval for the expansion plans for the hotel that were held up for two years or more with the zoning board, appeals, all of that suddenly got approved via quid pro quo, which I can only assume that all signs are pointing to, that we’re all aware of between Ellen and the property owners, Richard Gere and Russell Hernandez. I’m concerned that the normally cautious planning board process is being compromised by a desire to find a convenient solution for the cell tower litigation. I’ve seen Ellen Calves meeting with Russell Hernandez, one of my landlords well ahead of the planning board’s approval."

Town Supervisor Ellen Calves told the NY Post last month that Spruance's allegation is unfounded.

"That statement is not based on reality or fact," Calves told the newspaper. "The owners of the inn have been working on expanding their operations and have had plans before various boards of the town for several years and all of those have been received with enthusiastic support."

Calves told the Post that Gere and Hernandez "generously offered" the location because they genuinely "care deeply" about the town's emergency responders.

"It definitely came to our attention because they are working on their property, but in no way, shape or form was this idea put forward asking for any kind of favor or preferential treatment," Calves added. "Their project was well underway and already on the path to approval."

Calves told The Post that she was the one who asked Gere and Hernandez this past summer if they would be willing to accomodate the tower.

"Many members of the public were imploring the town board to find a less intrusive alternative," Calves told The Post. "Given that the Post Inn property is commercial, and in the town code commercial property is considered 'less intrusive' than residential sites, I was looking … to see if they would consider this."

The exclusive enclave's rich, powerful and famous neighbors were dubious about the assertion that the latest plans are less intrusive.

"The Board’s proposed solution at the Bedford Post Inn site is highly intrusive, not only to us but to our entire neighborhood," Jerry Seinfeld’s sister and manager Carolyn Liebling, with her husband, wrote in a letter to the planning commission. "The tower will cause significant environmental damage, including removal of acres of mature oaks, maples and other trees. The tower site and access road will scar the hillside and create a denuded hilltop that will be visible from our property and will be as intrusive as the tower itself. Our property value will plummet as well. We cannot stress enough how going forward with the proposed cell tower site at the Bedford Post Inn, next to our property, will change our lives, doing irreparable harm to our wellbeing and way of life."

The Leiblings were by no means alone in their opposition to the plan.

"My husband and I are very concerned about the new proposed site for a Verizon tower. At 684 feet, the tower will be the highest visible feature in all of Bedford except Mt. Aspetong," Kathleen Rooney Mara wrote in opposition to locating the tower on the Bedford Post Inn site. "It will destroy a breathtaking ridgeline and cause significant environmental destruction and damage that will be visible from all directions, including historic properties and scenic roads. I look out towards the northwest each morning on my way down Indian Hill. In the winter I have a gorgeous vista. And I look forward to it every year. Now I’ll be looking at an ugly tower that will soon be obsolete if the location is approved. When I drive by the nesting place for the great cranes the tower will be lurking. When I take a walk down Indian Hill with my dog and husband it will be there like an eye sore. When I climb the Pound Ridge Reservation trail on Honey Hollow Road I will for sure see it - A reminder of man’s destruction of our Earth in an otherwise tranquil majestic spot. Is this what our beautiful town wants or needs?"

The Lieblings were among a group of neighbors hoping to convince a judge to block approval of the Bedford Post Inn site.

Calves vowed that she won't allow the concerns of a few trump the needs of the larger community.

"Just because people who have money and power are threatening legal action, that doesn’t mean that they get more deference than anyone else," Calves told The Post. "We have to make the right decision for the whole town. This is a matter of public safety and quality of life."

The public comment period closed last month and written comments were accepted until Dec. 28. The Bedford Planning Board was originally scheduled to resume the review of Verizon’s latest application on Jan. 3, but postponed the vote by three weeks.

SEE ALSO:

• Balloon Test To Offer Idea Of How New Cell Tower Proposal Might Look
• Do You Live In A Dead Zone? One Last Chance To Be Heard
• Residents and Attorney Take Down Cell Tower
• The Cell Tower And The Fight For Mount Kisco's Leonard Park
• Richard Gere Found A Buyer For His $28 Million Pound Ridge Estate
• Lawsuit Accuses Richard Gere, Partner of Withholding Serving Staff Tips