SCOTCH PLAINS — A zoning board hearing on an application to construct a new cell-phone tower on Jerusalem Road was abruptly halted last week due to incorrect depictions of where the tower would be placed and how visible it would be to nearby homeowners.
CXTowersLeasingLLCislookingto construct a 160-foot-high cell tower on the property owned by New Jersey AmericanWaterCompany,whichwants existing cell antennas removed from its water tank and has made space available nearby for a separate monopole to be built. The plan is for the new pole to be locatedwithina35-footby35-footcompound surrounded by a 10-foot-high, barbed-wire fence. Three carriers — AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile — will have antennas at the top of the tower, with space for a fourth at a future date.
Forty-five minutes into last Thursday’s hearing, as professional planner Tim Kronk talked about his balloon test — where a red helium balloon was raised 160 feet in the air to simulate the height of the tower — and began showing photographs of the balloon from several different streets near the water-company property, Board Chairman Craig Peskin noted that photographs taken from Emil Place and Jerusalem Road depicted the new tower in the wrong place.
“This is the second time we’ve had an issue about where the site is,” he said, referring to the initial hearing last October that was quickly ended due to discrepancies in site plans in the distance between the water tank and the proposed new monopole. Some of last week’s photographs showed the red balloon and depiction of the cell tower to be as much as 100 feet away from the actual site.
The new tower’s site presently is a heavily-wooded area of the water-company property. Board Engineer David Atkinson asked how it was possible to raise a helium balloon among that heavy tree cover and above the tree line. Mr. Kronk said he would investigate.
Jennifer Knarich, the attorney representing CX Towers, apologized for the errors, as did Mr. Kronk. Board Vice-Chairman Dan Sullivan said CX representatives need to make sure the plans and depictions are accurate when they return with revisions at the board’s Thursday, May 2 meeting.
