New ordinance forbidding installations, like antennae, on pre-existing structures, like a water tower, may be on Nov. 26 Township Committee agenda
By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
More than 100 Brandon Farms residents packed Hopewell Township hall to standing- room-only capacity Tuesday to protest the Planning Board’s Oct. 18 approval of a T-Mobile application to put nine cell phone antennae atop the Trenton Water Works tower on Henley Place in the Mershon Chase section of Brandon Farms.
Township officials have said they had no choice but to approve the antennae because T-Mobile conforms with township law.
At the request of Brandon residents, a new ordinance that would forbid such installations of antennae on pre-existing structures like the water tower is expected to be on the Nov. 26 Township Committee agenda.
Meanwhile, both township officials and residents are negotiating with T-Mobile on finding another location for the antennae. Brandon Farms is the most densely populated section of the township.
Lisa Haden, who lives about 80 feet from the tower and is the leader of the opposition to the antennae, said her primary concern is not the appearance of the antennae, but the health danger she fears increased electromagnetic radiation could pose.
”There’s a lot of inconclusive evidence out there on whether this type of facility is a cancer threat, particularly to children,” Ms. Haden said. Dozens of other residents made similar comments.
”We do not accept the statement that there is no risk” posed by the increased radiation, a woman from Brandon Farms said. There were a number of children at Tuesday’s meeting, with several of them holding signs protesting installation of the antennae on the water tower.
Numerous residents said installation of the antennae would dramatically lower their property values. “No one wants ‘the porcupine,’” one woman said. “The porcupine” is the nickname residents have given to the water tower as it would appear clustered with cell phone antennae.
Richard Lee was one of the residents who said an alternative site must be found. He suggested the woods in the Twin Pines Airport, a 50-odd acre tract that Hopewell and Lawrence townships are poised to buy in partnership with the county.
The grass runway of the airport would be turned into ballfields if the sale goes through. The airport is across Pennington-Lawrenceville Road from the water tower. The wooded area is separated from the road by the airstrip.