Ocean City OKs Restrictions on Cellphone Towers, Antennas

By MADDY VITALE Ocean City will control where cellphone towers and antennas are built in the future, by restricting them to city property and on utility poles. Voting 7-0, City Council approved a new zoning ordinance Thursday that will give the city authority to make sure cellphone towers and antennas aren’t popping up on private property. There was no public comment on the ordinance, which was introduced on April 13. “This ordinance provides that wireless communication towers and antennas shall only be permitted on property that’s owned, leased or otherwise controlled by the city,” Ocean City Solicitor Dorothy McCrosson explained during the meeting. She also noted that “wireless facilities located in the public right-of-way must be on existing poles.” Wireless towers and antennas would be restricted to existing utility poles. A wireless carrier would not be allowed to add new utility poles in the city to accommodate more towers or antennas, McCrosson said. The ordinance also details the procedure for seeking approval to put the antennas and towers on a utility pole, she said.   While the city certainly will continue to allow cellphone towers and antennas to be built to provide wireless service in town, the ordinance puts “reasonable controls on where those facilities can be located,” McCrosson said during the April 13 Council meeting. A neighborhood controversy involving wireless antennas proposed on top of a privately owned commercial building at the corner of 34th Street and Haven Avenue spurred the Council discussion and led to the creation of the ordinance. Specifically, Verizon Wireless is seeking approval from the Ocean City Planning Board to locate wireless antennas on the roof of a two-story real estate building at 3337-39 Haven Ave. The matter created strong opposition from homeowners near the building. The Verizon matter is pending before the planning board. It was tabled at the May 3 planning board meeting and is scheduled for June 14. Verizon Wireless wants to put wireless antennas on the roof of this real estate building at 3337-39 Haven Ave. One key piece of the application the board will consider is an independent engineering report that will study the possibility of whether the antennas can cause any harm. Some issues raised by the neighbors involved potential health impacts caused by radio frequency waves emitted by cellphone antennas. Councilman Bob Barr asked what the procedure is currently to apply for a cellphone tower or an antenna, and what the process would look like for future applicants. “If someone comes before the board 20 days from now, when it (the ordinance) goes into effect, what will they do, versus what happens now?” Barr asked. McCrosson explained that currently, an applicant goes for a site plan or a use variance at either the planning or zoning board for approval. “The new process has a permitting application filed with the administrative officer designated by the city business administrator (George Savastano),” she noted. “They file a permit to seek to put a device on an existing pole and there is a review fee. There is a review by the city to see if it is an appropriate pole, and they have to post proof of insurance.” She likened it to the process for a construction permit. Barr asked if the applicant would need to go before Council and McCrosson said no. Council Vice President Karen Bergman asked if the ordinance would affect current applicants in the process of getting approvals for cellphone towers or antennas. McCrosson said the ordinance would not apply to those already in the process of getting a permit. That would include the Verizon Wireless antennas proposed on top of the commercial building at the corner of 34th Street and Haven Avenue. “So, now this ordinance gives us gives more control over towers and antennas and where they go?” Bergman asked. “So, this gives us more control of what’s allowed to be built?” McCrosson said that was correct.