By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
The Cellco Partnership, which fought for a dozen years to gain approval for a cell tower on the Peterson’s Nursery property at 3730 Lawrenceville Road, has obtained a construction permit from Lawrence Township to build the tower.
The construction permit was issued to the Cellco Partnership, which does business as Verizon Wireless, on Aug. 4, according to Lawrence Township officials. The company has one year to begin work on the tower.
The township Zoning Board of Adjustment approved a use variance application to allow the tower to be built on the Peterson’s Nursery property near the corner of Lawrenceville Road — also known as Route 206 — and Province Line Road in December 2010.
A use variance was needed because a cell tower is not a permitted use in the Environmental Protection-1 zone. The Peterson’s Nursery property is located in the EP-1 zone.
The Cellco Partnership had been in and out of court over the use variance since 1999. The zoning board denied the initial use variance application in 1999, and also denied a revised proposal in 2007. The board denied the revised use variance application because of the possibility that a 2-acre parcel on Carter Road would be available as an alternate site for a cell tower.
The applicant appealed to the Appellate Division of Mercer County state Superior Court, and the zoning board was ordered in 2010 to re-evaluate the use variance application without considering the Carter Road alternate site.
The plan that was finally approved locates the 140-foot-tall tower toward the middle of the Peterson’s Nursery property and away from the front of the property, as had been initially proposed. The final location was chosen because it would be less visible to passing motorists.
It was also noted that this portion of Route 206 is located within the King’s Highway Historic District, which begins in South Brunswick Township and ends at the intersection of Route 206 and Franklin Corner Road in Lawrence.
The zoning board approval calls for the antennas for the four carriers — Cellco/Verizon, Nextel Communications, Cingular Wireless, and Sprint PCS — to be hidden inside the monopole tower. The tower will be disguised with fake tree branches to help it blend into the wooded site.

