FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP – The Freehold Township Planning Board is taking action to uphold the zoning officer’s denial of a plan by T-Mobile to construct a cellular communications tower at 169 Robertsville Road.
On Oct. 4, board members voted to authorize their attorney, Frank Accisano, to prepare a resolution upholding the July 26 decision of Zoning Officer Pasquale Popolizio to deny the installation of T-Mobile Northeast, LLC’s, proposed 120-foot-tall monopole and associated equipment compound. The board may officially uphold the denial by voting in favor of the resolution at a future meeting.
The board’s action followed an appeal from T-Mobile of the zoning officer’s decision, which was heard at the Oct. 4 meeting. Attorney David Kenny presented the appeal.
The property at 169 Robertsville Road in a semi-rural area of Freehold Township was targeted for a cell tower by T-Mobile in 2007. The Zoning Board of Adjustment, which has since been unified with the Planning Board, denied the company’s application in 2009, but T-Mobile received permission to build the cell tower in 2011 from the New Jersey Superior Court.
For years, residents of the neighborhood have voiced their opposition to any plan that calls for the construction of a cell tower at 169 Robertsville Road.
In his review of the application proposing the tower’s installation, Popolizio noted that the Superior Court approved T-Mobile’s application due to a gap in coverage, which was based on the evidence produced before the zoning board during the hearings in 2008 and 2009.
Popolizio denied the company’s application because of coverage differences revealed when comparing coverage maps from 2007 to 2017; the lack of urgency shown by T-Mobile within the last seven years to construct a monopole at 169 Robertsville Road; a 2015 attempt by Verizon to construct a monopole at the location, which sought a use variance and was withdrawn; nearly a decade having elapsed since providing evidence of a coverage gap; and unlike typical use variances, a use variance for a cell tower does not run with the land.
Because a cell tower is not a permitted use in the zone on Robertsville Road, Popolizio said T-Mobile must make a variance application to the Planning Board if it seeks to pursue the cell tower and also had the option of filing a notice to appeal to the board.
In appealing the decision, Kenny said Popolizio did not have the authority to deny the application for the cell tower due to its prior approval in Superior Court.
“The zoning officer violated a court order when he issued his ruling,” Kenny said. “The approvals were issued in court and no individual on their own can invalidate a court order. If this application is not approved, the board may be found in contempt of court.”
Attorney Edward Liston, representing residents who are objecting to the proposed cell tower, argued that Popolizio acted properly because of the reported changes in wireless coverage that had taken place in the seven years since the Superior Court approved the application.
“Circumstances have changed and the zoning officer correctly noticed that,” Liston said. “This was an invalid approval.”
Board Chairman Richard Gatto and board members Leon Bruno, Patrick Coburn, Robert Shortmeyer, Jason Levy, Mayor Anthony Ammiano and Township Committeeman Lester Preston voted to authorize Accisano to prepare a resolution upholding Popilizio’s denial of the T-Mobile application. Board member Margaret Jahn voted “no.”
Board members must eventually approve the resolution in order to uphold the denial of the monopole and equipment compound on Robertsville Road. After they do so, T-Mobile may appear before the Planning Board to seek a use variance for the cell tower.