Lake Como Takes Next Step on WRAT Tower

officials are forging ahead to remove property restrictions in Behrmann Park that could clear the way for the owners of to erect a new radio communications tower on state-protected land.

By a 3-2 vote, the borough council decided Tuesday night to submit the required "pre-application" for a on behalf of WRAT's owner, Greater Media, Inc.

Council members Brian Wilton, Patricia Tzibrouk and Jared Cohen voted in favor of the controversial resolution to submit the paperwork to NJDEP. Councilmen Douglas Witte and Kevin Lynch cast the two opposing votes. Councilwoman Marni McFadden-Lee was absent.

How soon the NJDEP will reply to the pre-application is anyone's guess said of the Green Acres-protected land in the park's most southwest corner.

"It's going to take some time," Ryan said in an interview with Patch.

The pre-application is the first step toward persuading the NJDEP to remove the Green Acres protection for Greater Media to  and a two-story accessory building on borough-owned land. A formal application willl follow after the NJDEP has reviewed and returned the pre-application, Ryan said.

After the vote, Ryan indicated that the proposed tower, originally described by Greater Media representatives as reaching 533 feet, will come in at less than 500 feet, if the company gets all the necessary state and local approvals to build it.

After Main Street resident Tom Carroll asked the council why the approved resolution to be sent to NJDEP did not include wording that the tower would be 533 feet high, Ryan stated that Greater Media has agreed to decrease its stature.

"My discussions with [WRAT] radio reveal that it is going to be less than 500 feet [high]," Ryan said in reply to Carroll.

"That information doesn't go into the pre-application," Cohen added.

Several residents in attendance, mainly from the neighborhoods situated closest to Behrmann Park, audibly gasped upon hearing Ryan's statement.

Margerum Avenue resident Gretchen Schmidhausler, whose home backs up to the park, questioned Ryan about the tower's proposed height.

Greater Media's corporate leaders have repeatedly said the new tower would be 533 feet tall, said Schmidhausler, who added that she has attended all the public meetings where the issue was discussed.

"All that I have heard is that the tower is going to be 533 feet [high]," Schmidhausler said.

During the on the Green Acres diversion application, a Greater Media representative stated that the company would not consider building a structure less than 500 feet high, Schmidhausler pointed out.

Denise O'Hara of 22nd Avenue criticized Ryan and the council for approving a resolution that does not include wording to describe Greater Media's stated plans to use the new tower for co-locating cellular telephone company antennae along with radio communications.

By leaving out certain words, the mayor and council are attempting to make the pre-application more agreeable to the NJDEP without revealing Greater Media's plan to rent antenna space to cellular telephone carriers, O'Hara said.

"We all know it's a radio and cell tower," O'Hara said. "Why you're trying to disguise this as a commercial radio station and accessory tower is beyond me."

Greater Media's testimony that the tower would enhance public safety communications for local emergency management, fire and police departments, and for the New Jersey State Police, Homeland Security and National Weather Service does not reveal the company's true intent, she continued.

"The only thing driving the relocation and size [of the tower] is to generate revenue for Greater Media," O'Hara said.

With the pre-application soon on its way to NJDEP, the council also unanimously voted to close the state-mandated scoping hearing period — that is the formal time for borough officials to accept public comment on the proposed land diversion.

Schmidhausler, O'Hara and others living in the vicinity of Margerum and 22nd avenues have been battling Lake Como officials over placing the tower in the Green Acres-protected park due to concerns about noise, the safety of park visitors, and a negative impact on nearby property values.

If constructed, the tower site would abut the borders of Spring Lake and Wall Township. Officials and residents  have also come out to meetings in Lake Como to protest placing the tower near to homes, businesses and parks in their communities.

If Greater Media receives all state and local approvals to construct the tower in the park, company officials have promised to remove the existing 300-foot-high radio tower outside its studios at Main Street and 18th Avenue.

That tower, also located next to the Academy Charter High School, had been described by Ryan and other officials as an eyesore.

Even though borough residents who want the tower moved do not usually come out to council meetings to discuss it, they are glad to see it go, said Michelle McCreary of Laurel Terrace.

"Not everyone in the town is necessarily opposed to the relocation of the tower," McCreary said before the council voted. "Those people just don't always show up at meetings."

In asking Lake Como to seek the land diversion, Greater Media has also stated that the new site within the park would be suitable for erecting a heightened tower capable of transmitting emergency broadcast alerts to a broader area.

Ryan has indicated that the new tower would provide the borough with a much needed tax ratable that could generate about $54,000 annually under an expected 50-year land lease with Greater Media. Those savings could then be passed on to property owners who are paying about $244 in municipal taxes this calendar year on a home assessed at the borough average of $350,000, he said.