December 18, 2013 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • Page 3 Mahwah Township may get two monopoles along Route 17 by Frank J. McMahon The New Jersey Department of Trans- portation monopole that was recently installed between North Central Avenue and the ramp leading to Route 17 South has annoyed township officials. Mayor William Laforet raised the issue at a recent council meeting. He said that, while the NJDOT is within its rights to install the monopole, the agency did so without informing the township, and the planning board had previously approved a monopole on private property about 100 yards north of the NJDOT monopole site. “Had they known about the monopole we approved, they might have considered that instead of having two monopoles 100 yards apart,” Laforet said. In a Sept. 23 letter to Laforet, NJDOT Assistant Commissioner for Government and Community Relations Anthony J Atta- nasio wrote that it had come to his attention that township employees were claiming that before construction of the monopole can commence, Cross River Fiber, Inc. must come before the township’s planning board. He explained that, since Cross River Fiber, Inc. is a state Board of Public Utilities approved utility, and since all of its work is located on a state owned right of way, the applicable BPU and NJDOT regulations are quite clear that such work is exempt from local jurisdiction both with respect to approvals and required permitting. In an Oct. 14 letter to Township Attor- ney Andrew T Fede, attorney Michael T. Lavigne, who represents Internet Services Telco, LLC (Telco), the company for whom the township’s planning board previously approved the installation of a monopole about 100 yards north of the Cross River Fiber monopole, takes a different posi- tion. Lavigne claims the NJDOT guide- lines are clear that, for the type monopole Cross River Fiber is planning, there is to be municipal notification and a meeting with municipal officials. That meeting, accord- ing to Lavigne, is to be published in a local newspaper of record and provided to all res- idents within 500 feet of the proposed site. “Only after these meetings have been held with local officials and residents is the NJDOT Office of Community Rela- tions to recommend approval or denial of the site based on the community response received,” Lavigne stated. He also claims that the local public outreach and notifi- cation process called for in the NJDOT’s guidelines has been ignored in the Cross River Fiber case. Fede responded to Attanasio on Oct. 29, stating that both the Mahwah mayor and the township council believe the NJDOT should have provided the township with a notice from his office regarding the pro- posed construction of a monopole in the Route 17 right of way. He said the NJDOT pole exceeds the category four height of 70 feet and the NJDOT guidelines he has found confirm that public notice and a hearing ordinarily would occur before this category of pole construction. “We also believe that it should not matter if the pole is being constructed or used by a public utility,” Fede stated. “The pole’s effect on the public interest is the same. We also believe that the NJDOT nevertheless would seek to obtain and review the com- ments of the local public officials as part of the cooperative relationship Attanasio referred to in his letter, without regard to the identity of the carrier building or using the pole.” Fede stated that the NJDOT’s omission is especially of concern in this case because Mahwah’s officials would have advised him that a development application was pend- ing before the Mahwah Planning Board for the construction of another monopole in the same area as the above-referenced pole while the NJDOT and the state’s Depart- ment of Community Affairs have been reviewing and approving permits for the Cross River Fiber, Inc. monopole. “Mahwah’s planning board has granted this other approval,” Fede advised. He said the lack of communication “should have been avoided in this case, and we request that this not occur in the future.” Fede did not, however, indicate that the township plans any legal action in this matter and Lavigne could not be reached to (continued on page 4)