By Matthew Sockol
Staff Writer
MANALAPAN — The Manalapan Zoning Board of Adjustment will reschedule a hearing on an application from a company that wants to construct a wireless communications facility on Millhurst Road.
An application proposing the construction of a cellular communications tower has been submitted by New York SMSA Limited Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless.
The company is seeking municipal approval to place a 120-foot-tall monopole (single pole) with antennas at 83 Millhurst Road.
The monopole would be located in a 50-foot by 50-foot equipment compound that will be enclosed by an 8-foot-tall chain link fence, according to a public notice issued by Verizon Wireless.
Verizon Wireless is seeking a use variance from the zoning board because the proposed communications use is not permitted in Manalapan’s Rural Agricultural zoning district. The applicant also requires a variance because the maximum height permitted in the zone is 35 feet and with a lightning rod the monopole would reach 126 feet, according to the public notice.
The application has attracted the attention of residents who turned out for a hearing during the board’s March 16 meeting, but when the meeting began the residents were told the Verizon Wireless application would not be heard that night.
The hearing was cancelled because Verizon Wireless’ notice to nearby property owners was allegedly inaccurate, according to an attorney involved in the matter.
An applicant must send notice to every property owner within 200 feet of a property that will be affected by an application.
Zoning board attorney Dennis Galvin said that attorney Robert Munoz, representing a nearby property owner, found the notice for the application to be inaccurate.
Although Galvin said he and Verizon Wireless’ representatives did not find the notice to be inaccurate, he informed the residents that the company’s representatives chose not to present the application at the March 16 meeting to avoid potential complications later in the process.
No representatives of Verizon Wireless spoke at the meeting.
A new hearing date has not yet been scheduled. A new notice will be provided to property owners within 200 feet of the proposed facility.