Ridgewood July 20, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 5 Village council tables bidding process for cell tower by John Koster The Ridgewood Village Council has unanimously tabled plans to pursue bids for construction of a 140-foot cellular tower after an hour of spirited, often eloquent objections from neighbors of the proposed site at Ridgewood’s firehouse at East Glen Avenue. “We’re taking time to study it, to talk to the people,” said Mayor Keith Killion. He said the neighbors didn’t have to expect to find that a cellular tower would pop up over the summer now that the resolution to accept bids had been tabled. But Mayor Killion balked at appointing a resident group to study the best locations for a cell tower in Ridgewood. “I don’t think anybody in Ridgewood would want a cell tower in their vicinity,” Mayor Killion told Mary Ann Copp, one of the principal objectors along with her husband, Dr. Richard Copp, when she rose at the end of the meeting to assert that the council should form a study group made up of engineers, attorneys, and other citizens. “You can committee something to death,” Mayor Killion said. “I’m not in favor of a committee when we already have the answer.” Council members had hoped that by installing the 140-foot cellular tower, constructed by a primary user, at the East Glen Avenue firehouse, Ridgewood could forestall applications for towers on private property. Ridgewood Village Attorney Matt Rogers concurred with council members that such applications were difficult to deflect due to federal law, and could potentially leave Ridgewood with cell towers in far less acceptable locations after expensive litigation at the taxpayers’ expense. The cell tower as proposed by the council could also have garnered as much as $100,000 in rental revenue, once the primary lease-holder rented space to other cellular telephone and transmission companies. Neighbors of the site, however, were concerned about the notification of those within 200 feet of the tower less than 10 days before the July 13 council meeting. They were also concerned about the concept that, because the tower is slated for municipal property, it might be constructed without hearings before the Ridgewood Planning Board and Ridgewood Board of Adjustment, where residents or their attorneys may register their objections in an open public forum at quasi-judicial hearings. “Because it is on village property, the village is free to violate its own laws and is proceeding with breakneck speed,” one objector said. Of the dozen people who spoke, not one supported plans for the tower at the firehouse. Objectors cited the possible danger of microwave transmissions -- said to be suggested, though not confirmed, by detailed studies from Germany and Australia. Residents also said the 140-foot tower would be an eyesore. “This is not a homeowner putting a deck in his backyard,” Mary Ann Copp told the council. “This is a 140-foot cell tower that can be seen easily for a quarter of a mile in all four directions; farther when the leaves are down. This cell tower is as high has the Statue of Liberty, toe to torch. Because of the height of this cell tower, people on Crest Road, Heights Road, and especially Hillcrest Road and Upper Boulevard will be directly looking out at it. Here’s another perspective on how outsized this cell tower is: The five biggest trees in Bergen County range in height from 75 to 104 feet. That makes the cell tower 50 percent taller than the tallest tree in the county.” Neighbors also said that the negative impact on property values, and the resulting impact property tax rates, might nullify any revenue garnered by the rent on cell tower space. Some objectors asserted that the council had already prepared the bid packets, even though the formal vote to pursue bids had not taken place. “No one has picked up a packet yet,” Village Manager Ken Gabbert said. (continued on page 23)