Neighbors ask City Council for help, but told this application in Planning Board’s hands
OCEAN CITY — Although an application to place a batch of cell phone antennae on a commercial building off 34th Street is before the Ocean City Planning Board, neighbors brought their vocal opposition to City Council’s meeting Thursday, March 9.
After a handful of neighbors spoke out about fears of potential health effects from radio frequency, or RF, waves that are received and transmitted from the towers, they learned that council is not allowed to influence the Planning Board decisions.
Even if council decides to try to enact future regulations related to cell phone towers — which itself is questionable because the towers are under the purview of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) — nothing council does would affect an application already in the works.
“City Council cannot influence a pending planning board application,” city solicitor Dorothy McCrosson told council. “You can certainly hear the concerns of the neighbors, but you have no power to influence the planning board on an application.”
The only good news the neighbors heard was that the application, which was set to be heard during the Planning Board meeting March 1, was adjourned to have an independent engineer review aspects regarding potential health effects of RF waves, according to McCrosson.
In an interview published in the Feb. 22 edition of the Sentinel, neighbors raised their concerns about a minor site plan application filed by Cellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, to install rooftop telecommunications antennae and supporting equipment on the commercial property at 3337-39 Haven Ave., a building that also faces 34th Street near the corner with West Avenue. Residential properties are close by the Compass building, owned by real estate developer Eustace Mita.
The neighbors interviewed for the Sentinel article, Stephen and Kathleen Petrun, who own a residence at 3324-26 Haven Ave., appeared at Thursday’s council meeting. They and others talked of their concerns about the potential health effects of 5G cell phone towers so close to residential properties.
They note that while most cell phone towers are 50 to 200 feet high, those proposed for the roof of the Compass building have a center-line at 19 feet, the same height as the second floors of residences as close as 40 feet.
There are children and grandchildren who live that close and would be exposed to the RF waves, Kathleen Petrun said.
Her husband, Stephen, said a lot of measurements about the impact of RF radiation had to do with what occurs below them, but not in a straight line — such as a second-floor room directly across from the antennae.
“We are 43 feet from those antennae,” Stephen Petrun said, noting they need to know whether they are safe at 43 feet when hit by RF energy. “All they’re giving you is RF energy on the ground level. That doesn’t mean anything.”
Both Petruns said they have tried to contact Mita, the property owner, but their efforts have been to no avail.
The speaker who offered the most heart-felt commentary at the meeting was Louis Vincze of 3310 Haven Ave., who said he had a pacemaker put in two years ago and has instructions about avoiding exposure to high-energy cables, microwave towers, radiation from X-ray machines and even metal-detecting security gateways.
“I can’t subject myself to these kinds of rays,” he said.
He noted that the last time he had his pacemaker checked, it had eight years left on its battery life and he’d like to be alive to see that battery changed but, he added, “I don’t know if I’m going to be alive at the end of this year if they put one of those things up.”
Vincze said he loves where he’s living, doesn’t want to move and has no place to go.
James Harris of 3214 Haven Ave. said a diagram on the application from an electrical engineer calculates ground level cumulative exposure from the RF waves, but the document provided is not legible.
He asked how the Planning Board could accept a document like that and said he doubted anyone on the Planning Board has an electrical engineering background and would be able to understand the potential harmful effects.
“Unless you’re an engineer, you can’t read the report,” he said.
That is when McCrosson said the Planning Board decided to retain an independent engineer to review the report to see if the levels of RF waves posed a hazard.
Stephen Petrun asked if council would consider passing an ordinance to have a review of anything related to RF energy because it is not clear if that is safe or not.
“We need protection. We don’t have any protection,” he said. “No one is against 5G, but we don’t have any protections where people put them (antennae) wherever they feel like it.”
He added if the application were approved, nothing would stop the property owner from lining the roof with antennae like atop the seven-story Crown Bank building downtown.
He noted there was a note on the engineer evaluation in the application that says many municipalities have adopted telecommunications ordinances that specifically require new structures to accommodate additional wireless providers from a structural standpoint.
He wondered if it would be possible to provide neighbors protection from having 15 antennae on each side of the building.
Kathleen Petrun said they met with Mayor Jay Gillian a week earlier and he suggested they get a petition together. She said they got 91 signatures in one day of people opposed to having the towers in the neighborhood.
She noted having the towers on a building in the 34th Street gateway would add another detriment with the Bank of America “boarded up,” the nursery at the corner of West and 34th Street up for sale, Blitz’s Market building vacant and the barbecue restaurant at 34th and Asbury also vacant.
“It’s certainly not a good look driving into town,” she said.
Frank Worrell of Simpson Avenue said he was at council because his neighbors were there. He wanted assurance the engineer reviewing the report on the impact was independent.
He said the neighbors who went to the Planning Board meeting didn’t get a lot of courtesy or respect and that they heard too much from the board and lawyers about what was allowed.
“If they said ‘by right’ one more time I’d want to smack them one more time,” Worrell said.
McCrosson said the engineer hired to do the review was recommended by David Scheidegg, the professional engineer for the board.
She said Scheidegg has the role of educating members of the Planning Board and believes the engineer hired would be independent.
Council Vice President Karen Bergman asked if council could propose “some kind” of ordinance to protect neighborhoods from the towers.
McCrosson said the FCC regulates the towers and the city would have to see if it could control the height of the towers because if the antennae were higher, that would assuage some of the neighbors’ concerns. When Bergman followed up by asking if the Compass building project would be grandfathered in, McCrosson said that was the case.
“In a sense, yes, because the law says that the applicant is entitled to rely on the state of the law at the time the application is filed,” she said. “An ordinance that is adopted tomorrow would not affect an application that is filed yesterday.”
“There’s nothing we can do to change that?” Councilman Bobby Barr asked.
“That’s correct,” McCrosson replied.
“But,” Bergman asked, “it could protect the future?”
After other council members also weighed in, McCrosson noted it was possible, but much of the regulations surrounding the antennae and towers are controlled by the FCC.
Mayor Gillian said the city is taking the residents’ concerns seriously and is looking into what can be done. He said the citizens need the city’s help to figure out what is safe.
Council President Pete Madden told the people in the audience that council heard their concerns and “we’re going to do what we can.”