POTSDAM — The Stockholm Town Planning Board voted to approve Verizon Wireless's special use permit and site plan for a 200-foot-tall cell phone tower Thursday.

The communication tower is slated for a plot just off Route 11B, not far from a Mennonite family farm. It would be the third in the town of Stockholm.

Members of the Martin family, who run farms and a vegetable stand near the cell phone tower site, have protested its siting.

"They're generating a lot of sympathy, and they have a big pile of signatures in their favor," said G. Roy Horst, Planning Board chairman. "I appreciate that cell phone towers are not gorgeous, but I also appreciate that this would serve a major highway where there are blind spots, and it's important for people to be able to communicate."

Verizon also is seeking an area variance to allow the tower to be less than the required 300 feet from the nearest property line. The board voted Thursday to forward that proposal to the town Zoning Board of Appeals.