FARMINGTON — The Planning Board voted Monday night to approve an application for a telecommunications tower on leased land off Titcomb Hill Road.

The approval is contingent on Bay Communications II LLC/Northeast Wireless Networks getting federal licensing and providing a copy of the land lease that shows a nonconforming lot has not been created.

Before the application was approved, board member Tom Eastler suggested the board hear Peter Tracy, chairman of the town Conservation Commission, on the question of vernal pools in the proposed cell tower area.

“If Peter Tracy says a vernal pool is there, I’ll believe it,” Eastler said.

Clayton King asked for and received the qualifications of the author of the environmental impact study. Afterward, he accepted the study’s finding that there are no vernal pools to consider.

Planning Board member Lloyd Smith disagreed. A logger who has spent considerable time in the outdoors, he said ferns are not always present near vernal pools. “All you need is a depression in the ground that can hold water,” he said.

Of more concern to town attorney Frank Underkuffler is the formation of a nonconforming lot. He said a lease less than five years in length doesn’t create a lot. A lease that includes shared areas of use is less likely to be a transferable lot than if only one person is involved, he said.

Lloyd Smith voted against approving the completed application with the contingencies listed. He also voted against the soil erosion control and stormwater management application for the cell tower, which all other board members supported.

In other business, the Planning Board approved plans for the new McDonald’s restaurant and for construction of a 5,800-square foot central heating plant for the University of Maine at Farmington.