Last month’s approval of a cell tower to be placed on top of an existing PSE&G electric pole southeast of the intersection of Penn Lyle Road and Cedar Street has brought to light changes that both township officials and residents think need to be made to the township’s ordinance for future cases.##M:[more]##
After two heated meetings — one of which last until midnight — the Planning Board said it was handcuffed into approving the minor site plan approval for the T Mobile wireless communications facility on an existing electricity transmission tower because it complied with local ordinance. T-Mobile’s facility will consist of nine wireless communications antennas attached to a tower insert installed within the existing 111-foot tower, and extending 6.5 feet above.
Residents’ arguments had been based on disproving the actual need for the cell tower based on T Mobile’s argument that there is gap in service in the area. However, the issue of whether T Mobile actually needed the tower was deemed irrelevant by the Planning Board. Board members said the only issues they could consider were whether the cell tower had a negative impact on the area, which the board found it did not. Denying the application would leave the township open to litigation, board officials said.
Residents also argued that there were many other existing poles close in proximity to the site on which the cell tower could be placed without having adverse effects.
But during testimony, T Mobile’s experts testified that the company had significant gaps in service, and the gap is centered around the site near the Penn Lyle/Cedar Street intersection. However, while the site would cover most of the gap, it is not going to cover all of the gap, which extends for miles to the east of the township.
Residents argued that T Mobile should have created a plan that would address the entire gap at once — with a tower in a location that would fix the gap in service for the entire area — instead of going site-by-site, creating more cell towers in various towns (see letter page 6).
Planning Board Attorney Gerald Muller said planning officials will discuss the ordinance at the staff level, but there are budget constraints that limit whether that examination and possible changes to the ordinance can be done now.
He did say that one approach would be to bring in Christine Malone, who has had experience in helping municipalities deal with cell tower issues in the past, and who served as the board’s consultant during the hearing.
But, more specifically, “one thing that struck me was the idea that when the carriers make a judgment about where an antenna location should be, they do it one at a time, rather than comprehensively looking at their whole gap,” Muller said. A possibility is that “when they do it incrementally, that sets limits on where they could do the remaining towers,” he said. This way, an area might only see three towers, for example, as opposed to as many as five.
He said he believes the township has the authority to include language in the ordinance that would require a telecommunications company to present a conceptual plan showing incrementally, where they intend to place cell towers. “I’m sure there are other things, but that popped out at me at the meeting,” Muller said.
