Cohasset Select Board releases town-counsel opinion, orders study of alternate town-owned sites for Wheelwright Park tower

The Cohasset Select Board on June 16 released a town-counsel legal opinion on a proposed telecommunications installation at Wheelwright Park and voted unanimously to direct the town manager to study alternative town-owned locations that could address documented gaps in public-safety cellular coverage.

The meeting opened with a lengthy public-comment period on the proposal, dominated by residents and members of the Open Space & Recreation Committee who urged the board to pull the project from the park. "This cell tower is 17 stories tall," resident Barbara Ren said, asking the board to renegotiate the carrier contract or require the carrier to reimburse the town for new surveys if the location changes. Adam Norman, who represented the petition passed at town meeting, told the board the land was donated with the explicit intention that it be preserved for passive recreation and said the town's 199-to-30 vote reflected that expectation.

Assistant Town Manager Michelle Liry briefed the board on technical work conducted since the vote, saying staff had walked a potential RTF site with the carrier and engineers and that the vendor was running microwave and radio-frequency studies to determine whether the town-owned site could meet public-safety line-of-sight needs. Liry said the vendor told staff that deploying small-cell nodes to cover the same area would require many sites (the vendor cited roughly 20 nodes per carrier) and would be cost-prohibitive; she emphasized the project's stated primary purpose is to correct known 911 coverage gaps.

Board members said town counsel's opinion explains two points central to the dispute: the town-meeting article underpinning the citizens' petition was analyzed as a nonbinding resolution, and a lease executed in good faith vests rights that the carrier could enforce in court. The opinion warns that, if the town attempted to repudiate a lease, the carrier could seek specific performance or damages and that under G.L. c.93A certain damages could be trebled and attorney's fees awarded.

After discussion and public questions about whether the town meeting result was binding, the board voted unanimously to release the June 1 opinion to the public and then unanimously approved a motion directing the town manager, "subject to and without waiving or breaching any current contracts or contractual rights," to study and report back on alternative town-owned locations identified in the town's earlier RFP process.

Board Chair Paul Grady said the board was trying both to respect the town's legal obligations and to seek solutions that addressed the town's safety needs. "We did not want to ignore the town meeting vote," Grady said, but added that town counsel's legal analysis must guide the board's options.

Next steps: staff will complete the vendor's engineering studies and the town manager will lead a study of alternative town-owned sites; the Select Board said it expects more information in the coming weeks and will post the town-counsel opinion on the town website once possible. Any action that would alter existing contractual obligations will be evaluated against the legal advice and potential liability described in the opinion.

Votes taken: the board approved release of the June 1, 2026 town-counsel opinion (unanimous) and approved the directive to the town manager to study alternate town-owned locations for public-safety coverage (unanimous).