Nope, we're not getting a Bada-Bing in Baristaville, that would never fly. Park Street residents and the town continue to battle T-Mobile against another kind of pole. The saga, which has been dragging on for months entered another round of debate at a recent hearing. From The Montclair Times:
"We see this as a real threat to the community if it is not properly managed," said Township Manager Joseph Hartnett."That's in our strictest residential zone," Hartnett said, referring to the First Lutheran Church of Montclair, on Park Street between Chestnut Street and Watchung Avenue. T-Mobile has applied to the Zoning Board for permission to install the pole behind the house of worship to fill in a service gap or "dead zone" in the area.
Hartnett said if the monopole is given clearance, "you can kiss the rest of the town goodbye. If you can put one there, you can put one anywhere."
[Attorney Terry]Thornton, who leads the neighborhood opposition movement, said that in this case, if the Zoning Board allows a monopole in this residential zone, then other carriers could ask to place them in any residential part of town and "the Zoning Board would almost certainly have no authority to say no.""If it's a similar structure and the aesthetic impact was not dramatically different, they would be hardpressed to deny it," said Thornton. "We view ourselves as the finger in the dike for the township as a whole."
The monopole being proposed is an attempt at curtailing the visual impact on the neighborhood, Hess said. The design is untraditional, since the antennas would not be mounted on the exterior, but encapsulated inside the pole, he said.During the hearing, Steck, the objectors' planner, challenged T-Mobile's suggestion that the monopole could pass for a flagpole, since to him it is too tall and too thick.
"It's kind of a pole on steroids," Steck said.
Stay tuned for the next installment: the next hearings about T-Mobile's plan are at 7:30 pm on Wednesday, March 26, and May 14.
I have an idea. Let's say no to the tax-freeloading Lutheran Church, and locate the tower on the High School instead, with profits going into the town's schools.