By linda denicola
Staff Writer
FREEHOLD TOWNSHIP — After many hearings and many months of looking for an alternate site, the Planning Board has agreed to approve an application filed by Cingular Wireless to construct a cellular communications tower at the original spot proposed — on Route 9 north behind a Goodyear automotive store.
According to Guy Leighton, the township’s assistant planner, the board has authorized its attorney to write a positive resolution that will be voted on at the March 6 meeting.
Meanwhile some residents of the neighboring Juniper Farms residential development off Route 9 have hired attorney Ron Reich of Freehold Borough to represent them in their quest to prevent Cingular from building the tower near their homes.
Cingular’s site plan calls for the construction of a telecommunications facility which would include a 140-foot high monopole with an array of 12 antennas, an equipment shelter, an access driveway and related equipment on 4.28 acres on Route 9 north, behind Goodyear. The shelter and the antennae would be contained within a 22- by 52-foot chain link fence.
The parcel is zoned CMX-3 (corporate multi-use), which means that a communications service is a permitted use in the zone. According to Leighton, the equipment building would be set back in excess of 50 feet as required and there would be adequate screening of the equipment to shelter it from a nursing home to the north and the private residences to the east.
Leighton said because the tower is a permitted use, the board’s attorney cautioned the board members that they could not really prevent the applicant from constructing the tower.
Mayor Raymond Kershaw, who sits on the board, said the applicant met all of the requirements of that zone.
"There was no reason to turn it down," he said.
In June 2002, representatives of Cingular Wireless agreed to grant an extension on the application in order to consider other options.
Committeeman Eugene Golub, who was mayor in 2002, said during the June meeting that the company had agreed to explore other areas for the location of the tower.
"If we can find another site, that’s where it will go," he said.
But it took quite awhile to explore other sites. The final hearing on the application was postponed a number of times while the township, along with a hired consultant, tried to find what might be a more suitable place. In the report to the Township Committee, the consultant said he could not find a site that was any less of a problem than the Route 9 property, Leighton said.
Kershaw concurred, saying, "We had hired a specialist to take a look and see if there was another site. Working with Cingular Wireless, he looked at about 200 pieces of property, but none of them worked as well. Wherever you go on Route 9 there are residences nearby."
The mayor explained that Cingular needed to find a spot close to an existing tower.
"They had to go south, not north, because the towers need to be not more than a mile-and-a-half from each other in order to serve cell phone users," he said.
Leighton said the wireless company needs more coverage to alleviate the pressure on the existing tower near the Freehold Raceway Mall.
Juniper Farms residents filled the municipal meeting room during the hearings late last spring. They questioned everything from a storm water report, to photographs of the area submitted by Cingular’s professionals, to the portion of the tower that would rise above the tree line, to the impact of the tower’s placement on their property values.
They also raised concerns about health and how that would relate to electromagnetic field waves emitted by the tower.
Attorney Gary S. Forshner, representing Cingular, objected to comments about emissions issues, saying they were not relevant. He said the Telecommunications Act of 1996 states that only the federal government has jurisdiction over the question of radio frequency emissions and prohibits a municipality from denying a request based on emission concerns.
Planning Board Attorney Francis Accisano said the board was aware that the issue of emissions is irrelevant, but board members did allow some comment on the matter.
In the meantime, the Township Committee approved a new ordinance that limits cell towers to the manufacturing zone, but, said Kershaw, Cingular Wireless filed its application before the new ordinance was adopted.