Council asks for explanation after 145-foot radio tower plan for McKinley School surfaces

The Revere City Council on Aug. 25 asked the city’s planning staff, the owner’s project manager and the building team to appear before the council after learning that the regional 911 and municipal services hub planned for the McKinley School site would require a 145-foot radio tower.

Councilor Genzio (motion presenter) said the tower — which would exceed local height limits — represents a dramatic change to the neighborhood and asked for technical and siting justification before the Zoning Board of Appeals or other approvals proceed. “A 145 foot tower is gonna be a dramatic landscape change to the neighborhood and to the central business district,” Genzio said.

Tom Skorowski, chief of planning and community development, told the council the design team and radio-path engineers concluded the hub-and-spoke configuration needs a tall tower to provide redundancy to fiber connections and to communicate reliably with neighboring municipalities. “This system will basically operate as a hub and spoke system with McKinley being the hub,” Skorowski said. He added that redundancy is necessary because fiber outages have, in other cases, disrupted regional service for days and the microwave path is intended to provide a resilient backup.

Skorowski said the team learned in June that the necessary height for required coverage would be about 145 feet; the height requirement was included in the site-plan and was routed to the ZBA after design firm findings. He said mounting equivalent equipment on the school roof would still require a tower of similar height and would greatly increase structural costs.

Council concerns focused on proximity to residences, potential radio-frequency and safety questions, storm and wind risks for a tall structure, and the process timeline. Several councilors said they were unaware of the tower requirement when earlier votes on the project occurred and asked that the architect, owner’s project manager and the radio-path engineer (Introba) appear before the council. Councilor Kelly and others specifically asked for alternatives (reservoir site, roof mounts, or other off-site locations), detailed engineering reports, and assurances on whether the tower would accommodate commercial tenants (the city said the intent is public-safety use only).

Outcome: The council voted to request that the chief of planning, the owner’s project manager, the architect and radio-path engineers appear before the council to explain the need, alternatives considered, and mitigation for neighborhood impacts. Councilors indicated intent to raise questions at the ZBA appearance and asked staff to provide technical reports and testimony.

Next steps: The item will be brought to the council with the design team, and the ZBA will consider a variance/height relief as scheduled. Councilors signaled they may ask the ZBA to table or delay action until the council has had a fuller briefing.