HOWELL — A hearing on an application proposing the construction of a cellular communications tower was postponed last week.
The Nextel Corp., which is proposing to place a 120-foot-tall tower at the rear of the Grebow shopping center, Route 9 south, requested a postponement of its March 21 appearance before the zoning board.
Andrei Jackametz, of Irene Boulevard, who is leading one of three separate but concerted efforts to defeat the proposal, said he believes Nextel executives are rethinking their proposal in the face of the organized opposition.
Several calls to Nextel placed by Greater Media Newspapers were not returned.
Nextel is seeking a variance that, if granted, would allow for the construction of the tower on 50 feet from the property lines of the Irene Boulevard homes at the rear of the Grebow shopping center.
If approved, the tower is expected to have 12 antennas mounted on it. There would also be an 11-by-20-foot structure built to house cooling units.
The Grebow shopping center is in an HD-1 zone (commercial Highway Development on 1-acre lots).
The ARE zone, which permits agricultural-residential development, is the zone in which Jackametz and his neighbors live and in which a church and a Kinder Academy facility are located.
Jackametz has said that if placed as now proposed on the application, the 120-foot-tall tower would be about 50 feet from his property line and would obliterate his backyard.
Along with Jackametz’s Howell Opposes Tower (HOT) group, which has already hired an attorney and an engineer-planner to represent it at the next scheduled hearing of the application, the owner of Kinder Academy, on Ford Road, is also gathering a coalition in order to present a united force with HOT, as is the pastor of St. Alexander Nevsky Church, Alexander Avenue, which has a church and school on its premises.
Kinder Academy owner Mark Bischoff has said his group will likely also hire an attorney by the next scheduled Nextel meeting. Bischoff has said his coalition, comprised of neighbors from the area and parents of students, is very opposed to the tower and see it as a threat to their health and way of life.
The Rev. Valery Lukianov, pastor of the church, said the church has also hired an attorney to help in the fight against the application. Lukianov has said he does not think the tower is a "healthy proposition."
A new meeting date is expected in May, according to the township’s land use office.
An ordinance addressing future cell tower placement in the township was almost adopted by the Township Council at its last meeting. However, the vote was put off until April 8 so that language in the ordinance could be rewritten and more clarification contained in the law.
If adopted, the new ordinance would mandate a setback from the property line of at least three times the height of a cell tower.