Mid'town clears the air about cell tower

MIDDLETOWN — Residents of the Lincroft section of the township have been flooding the mayor's voice mail with questions about a cell tower at Exit 109 on the Garden State Parkway,

Mayor Pamela Brightbill reported at the Township Committee's June 1 workshop meeting that according to Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante, the TMobile cell tower site has been in the works since 2005, and she said the reaction from residents stemmed from a recent Zoning Board hearing concerning a proposed cell tower at the Lincroft firehouse on Newman Springs Road.

"I guess this probably came up because of recent hearings that the Zoning Board has had for a cell tower at the firehouse on Route 520," Mercantante said. "Some of that discussion in that whole process was, 'Why do you need a cell tower there when they are building one at Exit 109?'That was probably part of the applicant's testimony, because as those cases go, they look at areas that are served and areas that are not served by cellular signals, and that's how they justify their application."

Mercantante was referring to a Zoning Board application in May from Omnipoint Communications Inc., representing T-Mobile, seeking minor site plan approval to construct a 100-foot-tall monopole for telecommunications, including antennas and ground-based equipment, to be placed at the back of the Lincroft firehouse.

One of the reasons given by members of the Zoning Board in the final decision to reject the application was that the proposed cell tower at Exit 109 would provide adequate service to the area.

Brightbill said at the meeting that she wanted Mercantante to inform the public on the status of the application, after she received a stack of messages from Lincroft residents asking about the cell tower's location.

Mercantante said the application that was referenced during the Zoning Board hearings goes back to 2005, when studies began for placing a cell tower along the parkway.

"This one actually goes back a number of years and is not anything new," Mercantante said. "The town was noticed and the state held a public hearing in 2007 on this location, and if you can envision the onramp at Exit 109, there's that big, round circle."

He said there has been some confusion on the part of residents that the location was actually the corner of Route 520 and Woodland Avenue.

"Technically, it is. I think that some people perceive it as something being built right on the corner, but what is proposed for this tower location is a significant distance away from the road and away from the parkway entrance ramp," Mercantante said. "It's about 400 feet to the closest property. I did speak with the [N.J.] Turnpike Authority, because I hadn't heard anything about this project in years. The information I got back was that it was still planned to happen, but there is not a date or schedule, but it is still in the works."

Brightbill said many residents just wondered when they would receive notice of the application.

"A lot of people have called and said that they have never gotten a notice about this," Mercantante said. "Obviously, in most cases when things are built, including cell towers, there is a notification process. The state highway authority and turnpike authority are exempt from that, and they are not required to seek our permission to build anything on their property, so there is no notice requirement."

He said there was a public hearing, and public notice was published and notice to Town Hall was given in 2007, but the agencies are exempt from normal land-use law requirements of public notification.

The study for the application began in 2005 and the actual public hearing was held in 2007, with the site gaining approval.

Committeeman Patrick Short wanted to know if the parkway site was a reaction from T-Mobile to their application being denied at the Lincroft firehouse, but Mercantante noted that the parkway location predated the Lincroft site.

"There may be a perception that because they got turned down at the firehouse, that they are going to build this," Mercantante said. "They are completely separate, and they both would probably get built if T-Mobile had their way."

The Lincroft application sought a "d"

variance because the cell tower did not meet the conditions of a conditional use in the RO (residential/office) zone and therefore is not permitted in the zone. It also sought variances for maximum height, with 100 feet proposed where 35 feet is the maximum permitted, and rear yard setback, with 19 feet proposed where 35 feet is required.

The Lincroft Fire Department signed a contract for a 100-foot-tall cell phone tower (flagpole design) on the parking lot of its property at the corner of Route 520 and Rose Street as a source of revenue for the department.

The Zoning Board did not find the Lincroft tower to be "inherently beneficial" to the community.

Mercantante said that T-Mobile is continuing to look for locations to increase their service in town.

Contact Jamie Romm at jromm@gmnews.com.