By Gene Robbins, Packet Media
Zoning board members may be forced to take a vote on a 120-foot cell phone tower at the Woods Road firehouse on Wednesday, Aug. 3, or risk having a decision default to a court or federal agency. Verizon could consider invoking a federal statute regulating the time of decision, a measure to counter local agencies dragging their feet on voting.
Verizon wants to build the tower on the property of the Woods Road firehouse to improve service, especially with 4G phones that people increasingly use to reach high-demand internet service, to the 2,200-home area.
The proposal needs zoning variances, primarily to place a cell tower and house equipment in a residential zone, close to homes. The ordinance says a tower must be 1,000 feet from a residence; Verizon’s proposal is 120 feet from the closest home.
Verizon is also asking the Board of Adjustment for a variance to come within 2,000 feet of the Woods Road Elementary School (the proposed tower is 940 feet away), and to exceed the allowable maximum 35-foot height for a structure in the zone.
Because it would be in the heart of a single-family home development, the issue has community opposition for the aesthetics and as a threat to property values. Verizon would pay the Woods Road Fire Company No. 3 an undetermined amount per year for the right to operate behind the firehouse, beyond the outfield of a baseball field.
Testimony continued July 20, but more is needed. Verizon plans to present a planner and a site acquisition expert, and testimony and questions from residents would follow.
At the end of last week’s meeting, scheduling a new session drew furrowed brows. The board suggested dates in mid-August and mid-September, but each drew conflicts with various lawyers or experts.
There have been limits on local authority over telecommunications facilities since the passage of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, which says action on the application for towers and antennas must be “within a reasonable time period.”
In 2009 the Federal Communications Commission issued a ruling that said applications for new facilities must be acted upon within 150 days of receipt of a complete application. If the government body fails to meet a deadline, the applicant can bring action against the government under federal law.
It wasn’t even clear if Verizon could voluntarily agree to extend the time of decision to give the board more time to hear testimony.
In any Board of Adjustment case, an applicant needs five votes for approval. On July 20 zoning board members continued to ask about other possible locations that could service the area. Questions asked about the possibility of covering the area by signals coming from different directions, possibly augmented by antennas that could be attached to utility poles or new poles that would have to erected.
The previous night, Verizon began presenting an application to the Montgomery Township Board of Adjustment for approval of a tower in a faux silo on a farm near River and Staats roads. The site is three miles or more from the Woods Road School, which is near the firehouse. Verizon’s engineer said signal strength may not effectively travel to cover the Woods Road area.
Board members also asked the viability of signals from possible towers on other properties, like a tennis club along Route 206, the Conard farm along Hillsborough Road or even farms across the Millstone River to the east in Franklin Township.
“What else is possible — that’s what we’re asking,” said board member Helen “Chickie” Haines.
Warren Stilwell, Verizon’s attorney, said evaluating other sites “is not our application.”
Ms. Haines replied that was implying there are other possibilities and Verizon didn’t want to investigate them.
Mr. Stilwell said Verizon needs a willing landlord as well as the approvals to build.
Verizon radio frequency engineer David Stern presented new maps with overlays of areas that could be covered by other towers.
Earlier in the meeting, Mr. Stilwell conceded that towers could possibly be built on farmland preserved with public money. Still, he said, a farmland site to the west would be inadequate as a single site to cover the entire area in question.
If antennas on utility poles would be used alone instead of a tall tower, it would take 46 new utility poles with equipment 25 to 30 feet high, Mr. Stern said.
Existing towers in the area can’t simply be made higher because they might overshoot the intended coverage and begin to interfere with signals coming from other towers, Mr. Stern said. For instance, a tower 160 or 180 feet high wouldn’t provide any more coverage than one at 140, he said.
Bruce Eisenstein, an independent radio frequency engineer hired by the board, said the system is limited not just by the signal from a tower, but from an individual cell phone. Distances could be too great for a phone’s signal to get back to the tower.
Residents also asked about the number of complaints and the time period in which they were made. Verizon says complaints, in addition to lack of coverage, contribute to the need for the tower at the firehouse location. There were 30 to 40 in the one- to two-mile radius, Verizon said.
