contested application
for Rte. 34 location
Omnipoint seeks new
location for cell tower
Old Bridge residents
contested application
for Rte. 34 location
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
OLD BRIDGE — A controversial proposal to locate a cell tower at a Route 34 storage facility may be changed to reflect a new location.
Leading wireless carrier Omnipoint Communications Inc. notified township officials last week that it is now looking for other sites for the 130-foot monopole, originally planned for a location inside the Shurgard Storage Center, 158 Route 34 South.
Omnipoint has a pending use variance application before the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment to build the monopole. The board had expected to continue its hearing, and possibly vote on the application during last Thursday night’s meeting.
However, those items were put on hold after Board Chairman Kiran Desai announced Omnipoint’s new plans, confirmed in a letter from the applicant’s attorney, Gregory J. Czura of Ringwood.
Also delayed were statements from members of REACT (Residents Emerge Against Cell Tower), a grassroots activist group comprised mainly of about 60 residents living in the vicinity of Amboy and Disbrow roads, in close proximity to Shurgard Storage.
"Omnipoint suddenly realized there is concern from neighboring residents," Desai told those in attendance. "They want extra time to look for a new location."
The March 3 letter from Czura, as read at the meeting by Desai, asked for a one-month postponement of the application to April 1 without having to provide additional notice.
"The purpose of this one-month extension of time is to permit Omnipoint Communications to search for alternate sites in the vicinity which may possibly replace the proposed site," Czura wrote.
Conversely, Czura noted that his firm would grant the board a 30-day extension as well to take action on the application.
If Omnipoint finds a site other than the present Shurgard site for its tower, the board might have to hear the entire application again depending upon whether variances would be needed on that site, Desai said.
However, if the applicant does not choose another site, the hearing on the present location could continue, he said.
In response to questions from a few residents, Desai indicated that the board would try its best to notify the neighbors of any further postponements, if possible, a week in advance.
Those residents would be notified by registered mail of any rescheduled hearing beyond April 1, Board Attorney James Hyland said.
Two residents, Luis Medeiros and Kevin Pruneau, the president and secretary of REACT, respectively, asked Desai and the board if the applicant might be deliberately stalling in order to discourage residents.
However, both later agreed with Hyland’s explanation that Omnipoint had shown a valid reason for the postponement.
"We’re willing to give [Omnipoint] the benefit of the doubt," Medeiros said.
"We would have filled the room tonight," Pruneau said, "but we had a bunch of people who heard about the cancellation and stayed home."
REACT is working to generate support for its cause by circulating a flier throughout the affected neighborhoods.
"Cell towers not only affect your health, but also depreciate the value of your homes," the flier advertising Thursday’s meeting reads.
A recent decision by the Sayreville Zoning Board of Adjustment resulted in the relocation of a cellular tower, originally proposed by Verizon Wireless for a site in a residential area, to a site designated for commercial redevelopment. REACT’s leaders cited that decision in its flier as well.
"Sayreville residents recently succeeded in stopping a cell tower with 300 residents attending their meetings. We will stop this cell tower, too," the flier states.
In correspondence to The Suburban, Medeiros, Pruneau and other residents have cited medical research conducted in Canada, Australia and Europe showing that radio frequency radiation coming from a cell tower can cause various diseases and chronic conditions including cancer.
The nearest residence is 400 feet away from the 55-by-50-foot unmanned compound where the tower would be located, according to one of Omnipoint’s design engineers who testified in January.
Plans call for that compound to be buffered with landscaping inside the premises of the storage facility.
Omnipoint needs use variances from the township for the command center’s floor area ratio and landscaping area inside the storage facility.
The monopole, which would feature 12 antennas on its highest point, could be leased to as many as five carriers, including Omnipoint, according to previous testimony.
It is needed to fill in what witnesses have described as a more than a one-mile gap in the coverage area around routes 34 and 516 and Amboy Road.