Morristown board approves cellular installation atop apartment building

This image shows where DISH Wireless antennas will be located atop The Monroe, as visible from Washington Street. Screenshot by Joe McLaughlin
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By Joe McLaughlin

 

By a vote of 5-0, the Morristown zoning board on Wednesday approved a cellular installation atop The Monroe apartments at 30 Cattano Ave.

DISH Wireless LLC  brought the application before the board to cover a gap in its coverage area.

An expert hired by the company assured the board that radio energy generated by the equipment will meet federal safety standards.

“There would be nowhere where residents of the building or people on the street level would risk being exposed to an excess amount or overage of the limit,” testified David Collins, an expert on compliance with Federal Communications Commission regulations who works for the Morristown-based Clinical Telecom Group.

Collins conducted radio-frequency exposure modeling for the project, which gauged energy generated by the antennas against the FCC’s permissible maximum.

Morristown virtual zoning board meeting, Jan. 22, 2025. Screenshot by Joe McLaughlin

At the ground level, radio energy from the project would be 2.9 percent of the FCC’s legal maximum. Modeling at the main roof near the antennas would be 58.88 percent of the limit.

On the lower roof, which features a community space for building residents, maximum exposure would be 1.87 percent.

While modeling predicts radio energy exposure would exceed the allowable maximum by more than 4,000 percent directly in front of the antennas, that area would be inaccessible to residents, the board was told at the virtual hearing.

“In accordance with FCC rules and DISH guidelines, we are posting caution signs at each antenna sector and guidelines about how to behave in the presence of radio frequencies,” Collins said.

Town Planner Phil Abramson questioned Collins about the health hazards associated with excessive radio energy exposure.

“I’m not a medical professional,” Collins answered, “but I’ve read the effect of radio energy on a human being causes soft-tissue heating. Long-term excessive exposure could affect your eyes or reproductive organs for males.”

FOURTH TIME’S THE CHARM

DISH tried — and failed — to come to terms with owners of three other Morristown structures before finding a willing partner in the 77-foot-tall Monroe building, which appeared on the application as 33 Washington St.

Speaking before the board, Rick Ricciardi of AMP Communications, the project’s site-acquisition professional, explained the winding process that led DISH to The Monroe.

“We negotiated with the landlord of 460 Headquarters Plaza for over a year before the landlord walked away,” he said.

“The second building we approached was 67 Park Place, but they walked away fairly quickly. Then we approached the county about their building at 10 Court St., but that also ended early.”

DISH presented this photograph of a a Bloomfield building to demonstrate the visual effect of an antenna (second from left) clad in reflective tape. Screenshot by Joe McLaughlin

Those sites were closer to the DISH Wireless target area and would have required fewer variances than the project that ultimately was approved.

Before approving the project, the board asked project representatives to verify that they had, in fact, reached out to other sites in Morristown as they stated.

As part of the application, DISH will clad the antennas in a reflective material that will make them less visible from Washington Street, by essentially mimicking the condition of the surrounding sky.

The board also stipulated that DISH was responsible for removing outdated equipment from the site, and that a radio energy assessment must be conducted after construction to ensure the accuracy of energy-exposure modeling.

Another item on the agenda, a proposal for seven residential units at 65 Ridgedale Ave., was postponed until Feb. 19.

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8 COMMENTS

  1. Jeff, you fail to recognize how low the power level that modern cell antennas emit and even that is directly in front of them as opposed on floors below the antenna or the ground below. So may things emit many many times the radiation of a cell antenna and nobody even knows that they are there.
    If you want to believe that this is a gigantic hazard then you are free to do so just as you’re free to insist that the earth is flat.

  2. For what its worth, the typical home microwave oven is five to ten times more powerful than these Cell Antennas. The ovens do come with installed shields but how new is your oven? Ever slam the door or risk damaging it in any way? At the power levels that these operate at, the potential risk is miniscule.

  3. Chis, those things are not important. What is important is that there are people will profit from this kind of stuff. It just comes down to that.
    A friend of mine lived on the top floor of an apartment building an the owners allowed cell phone equipment on the roof. She moved out. I bet she was the only one.
    Also, most people are oblivious this stuff. They don’t know and don’t care.
    If people stopped renting space in the top floor(s) of buildings like this, these things wouldn’t happen. But it won’t go that way.

  4. Does anyone ever factor in the cumulative exposure in reality?? So while makesay become neutered, we are willing to roll the dice because we post unsuspecting signs that an average person probably won’t read.
    Is there any consideration to the additional RF people are exposed to daily by carrying a 5g phone, living in WIFI buildings, and being cooked like microwave popcorn from all ends?
    Cumulative exposure for the average person, was there any model for that? What about the people who live on the top floor? 5 percent off the rent on exchange for years if life? How’s it all reconcile? It’s amazing.

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