Tom Devine and his family fled the noise and congestion of North Jersey a few years ago for the peace of the Millstone woods.
They bought a house on Lost Road, a dirt road with few other neighbors. They thought they had found a haven.
They were wrong.
The Millstone Board of Adjustment voted 6-1 last week to allow AT&T Wireless to attach a cellular antenna to an existing electrical tower on Township Committeeman Chet Halka’s property. The tower sits roughly 200 feet from Devine’s property. The antenna comes with cooling fans and other machinery that Devine contends will make too much noise.
The Zoning Board’s decision flies in the face of the township Environmental Commission’s opinion that cellular antennas don’t belong in residential areas.
Commissioner Richard Brody said the commission also objected to installing antennas on existing towers for aesthetic reasons and because of the possibility of increased electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure to residents.
The Zoning Board’s decision is even more puzzling because it contradicts an almost identical case decided back in September 2001.
Back then, Nextel wanted to install a similar antenna on an existing electrical tower on Agress Road. Agress Road residents packed the municipal building to protest the application. The Zoning Board voted unanimously against the proposal. Board members said then that the antenna didn’t belong in a residential area, period.
What makes this application any different?
"The board already set a precedent by denying Nextel, and I deserve the same considerations," Devine said after the decision. "The noise level on Agress Road was 60 decibels, and my decibel level is 65. I have a nice home, but the people on Agress Road have million-dollar homes. So maybe that’s why they got their way."
Million-dollar homes or not, the Zoning Board owes Tom Devine an explanation.