MARLBORO — Although Marlboro officials fought a company’s plan to build a cellular communications tower, a Verizon Wireless cell tower will be built on the Marlboro Township Municipal Utilities Authority (MTMUA) land on Harbor Road.
A state Superior Court judge recently overturned a 2008 Marlboro Planning Board decision to reject the placement of the cell tower on the MTMUA property.
In June, members of the Planning Board denied Verizon’s application to build a 150- foot tall monopole transmission tower. They cited a Marlboro ordinance which states that the pole cannot be placed within 500 feet of a residential zone.
At the time the application was heard it was stated that the closest residential use was 206 feet away from the proposed location of the monopole.
Planning Board attorney Michael W. Herbert said state Superior Court Judge Lawrence M. Lawson overturned the board’s decision. He said Lawson found that Verizon’s representatives proved the positive and negative criteria required to receive a variance from the setback requirement.
Herbert said Lawson noted that if Marlboro officials wanted to impose these types of setbacks for conditional uses they should be part of the conditional use requirements, not the overall zones.
He said Lawson is requiring Verizon to build the monopole with conditions board members had sought during the initial public hearing.
The monopole will be co-located so that four other carriers will be able to place antennas on the pole. The construction of a pole on the MTMUA property is a permitted conditional use in that area of Marlboro.
At the time of the board’s denial of the application, Herbert said that when Verizon’s attorney appealed the decision it would be hard to defend, given the testimony provided by the board’s professional and the Federal Communications Commission regulations.

