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Politics & Government

No Referendum on WRAT Tower, Lake Como Says

Council moves toward sending Green Acres diversion application to state Department of Environmental Protection.

Borough officials have sunk the idea of floating a this November on the of the from Main
Street to Behrmann Park.

Although Mayor Michael Ryan says he and the borough council to raise a new, 533-foot-high radio communications tower in the Green Acres-protected park near Margerum and 22nd avenues, they have heard from just as many residents favoring that plan.

Those who would like to see the existing 300-foot-high tower removed from the borough’s downtown are frustrated that it remains in place despite six years of discussion about dismantling it, Ryan said during Tuesday night’s council meeting.

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“For every letter that comes in saying ‘Don’t move the tower,' we get one saying ‘Move the tower,’ ” Ryan said.

 “I’m not going to pit resident against resident by holding a referendum,” he added.

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As elected officials, the mayor and the council get paid to "make tough decisions" on residents’ behalf, Ryan said. He then urged the council to move forward with seeking to divert part of the park from state protection for commercial use as the tower site.

Should the DEP subsequently agree to divert the land and remove it from Green Acres protection, Greater Media, the WRAT’s owner, will have cleared the first hurdle toward erecting the newer, higher tower and a 2-story ancillary building in the park’s southwest corner.

By the next council meeting on September 6, borough Attorney William Gallagher is expected to present a draft resolution that endorses submitting the application for a diversion of about 4,000 square feet of borough-owned land from the Green Acres program.

At that meeting, the council is expected to review and vote upon the drafted resolution. A vote to submit the diversion application would serve as the first step toward applying for the land diversion, according to Ryan and Councilman Brian Wilton.

The proposed tower site, in a wooded area, sits at the borders of Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights and Wall Township. All three neighboring municipalities have publicly expressed opposition to the tower construction and relocation.

Wilton, who motioned for Gallagher to draft the resolution, agreed with Ryan that as elected leaders, the council must act now rather than waiting until November to gauge public opinion in a non-binding referendum.

“The referendum is not the way to go,” Wilton said. “I’d like to save everyone a lot of grief."

During the council's Aug. 2 meeting, Ryan and other council members had discussed placing a referendum question on this fall’s general election ballot. The application to print the referendum question on the ballot would have had to be submitted to the Monmouth County Board of Elections by Aug. 19.

In a separate action, the council that amended the town's zoning laws to allow radio communications towers over 500 feet to be raised within the town’s borders.

The now-repealed ordinance had prompted the Borough of Spring Lake to file a civil suit against Lake Como in Monmouth County Superior Court in June.

In the complaint,  Spring Lake Mayor Jennifer Naughton asked the court to nullify Lake Como’s ordinance. Naughton also charged Ryan and the council with violating the state land use laws by voting upon the ordinance without notifying Spring Lake of the May 2 public hearing on the measure.

Naughton and other Spring Lake officials have said that they should
have been notified about the public hearing because Marucci Park in that borough sits within 200 feet of the proposed tower site in Behrmann Park.

During the meeting’s public portion—minutes after the council voted to repeal the earlier ordinance—Naughton addressed Ryan and
the council.

Even though Lake Como officials have repealed the ordinance that prompted the lawsuit, Spring Lake officials will still continue to advocate for its own residents who would live “in the shadow” of a heightened WRAT tower in Behrmann Park, Naughton said.

Spring Lake officials remain puzzled as to why Lake Como officials would accommodate Greater Media by seeking the DEP diversion that could ultimately lead to building the tower near homes in both boroughs, she added.

“We are baffled by the idea that it makes sense to relocate an enormous commercial tower in a residential area,” Naughton said. “We also have yet to see the true public benefit here.”

If constructed, the new WRAT tower would be the highest in Monmouth County and one of the tallest in the state, she added.

Naughton later told Patch that she is unsure if Spring Lake will continue to pursue the lawsuit. She referred questions about the case to Joseph Colao, the borough attorney.

Because the litigation is still pending, Colao, who also attended the Lake Como meeting, refused comment.

Greater Media officials have stated that the new tower will benefit the public by allowing it to broadcast a wider signal particularly in the event of a natural or man-made disaster as directed by the Emergency Alert System. The corporation has also offered $150,000 to repair recreational equipment in the park if Lake Como approves a preliminary site plan to construct the tower.

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