Verizon plans new location for cell tower after protests

By GREG KENNELTY
Staff Writer

Following protests by residents, a proposed cell tower will be relocated from a residential area to a vacant property on Cranbury Road in East Brunswick.

Verizon Wireless will resubmit its cell tower application to the East Brunswick Zoning Board of Adjustment for approval, a representative of the telecommunications company said at the Sept. 4 board meeting.

Residents of Willis Court and Timber Road opposed the original plans for the tower on Dunhams Corner Road, proposing alternate sites at the board’s July 9 meeting.

“During the [meeting], one of the board members had asked us to look at a property [at 491 Cranbury Road],” said Gregory Meese, attorney for Verizon Wireless. “We have done that, and we have talked with the property owners. They have expressed an interest, and we are in lease negotiations with them. What we would like to do now is review that as an alternative to the [107] Dunhams Corner Road property.

“We developed a preliminary plan we would like to share with the board, and that would be an alternative location to the site.”

Meese said the plans for the new location would take about six weeks to complete before they could be presented to the board for testimony. He also said residents within 200 feet of the new location would be notified of the change in plans before testimony is heard on the new application.

Meese said the proposed plan for the property on Cranbury Road would include a 140-foot monopole tower surrounded by a 35-by-65-foot compound that would house a communications shelter for equipment. Access would be from Cranbury Road, and utilities for the site would be routed under the street.

The proposed tower on Cranbury Road would be 20 feet taller than the 120-foot tower proposed on Dunhams Corner Road.

“In reviewing some of the other properties and doing coverage analysis for this property, as we move farther away [from other towers], we will have to come up a little higher to maintain coverage [between towers],” said David Stern, a radio frequency engineer who testified on behalf of Verizon Wireless. Project manager Chad Schwartz said the compound would be screened by landscaping and fencing, and the tower would be hidden from view as much as possible.

“The compound will be fenced and landscaped in order to obscure the equipment inside. There is also an excess berm pile on the site, which will help,” he said. “The trees to the north would provide some natural screening, and we are also proposing to the west, east and south we will provide screening to at least the base of the tower so it would cover the communications equipment that is within the compound.”

In previous testimony, Stern said the tower is being proposed because the 10 cell towers in East Brunswick do not provide sufficient coverage to a roughly 1-by-1.5- mile area that stretches from the intersection of Dunhams Corner Road and Cranbury Road — near East Brunswick High School — westward to a section of the New Jersey Turnpike between Milltown Road and Dunhams Corner Road.

The proposed tower on Cranbury Road would cover approximately 90 percent of the cell service gap.

Zoning board member David Rosenthal commended Verizon Wireless for looking at a new location.

“I think it is the right thing to do. I think that this is something we should look at seriously … and I hope this pole is at least aesthetically pleasing. This town is … very residential. People live here, and when they drive to and from their homes, they want it to be nice. They do not want it to be some kind of industrial complex.”