Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Bayonne, Nextel on same page Mediation session refines city ordinance

From: "marcel_rf1" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2003 08:22:36 -0000

Bayonne, Nextel on same page Mediation session refines city ordinance 
Friday, August 22, 2003

By Michaelangelo Conte 
Journal staff writer 

Wireless communications companies will have to win approvals from the 
Bayonne Board of Adjustment if they want to install cell phone towers 
in residential neighborhoods. 
Last week's mediation session on the Bayonne Antenna Ordinance between 
city officials and Nextel ended amicably with an agreement that 
otherwise upheld requiring only minor changes to the city's ordinance, 
which was adopted in response to complaints about construction of the 
antennas in residential neighborhoods. 

"My concern was they would
try to eliminate certain
preferred locations for
antennas, and I believe we
have a right to regulate
where the antennas go and
the size of the structures,"
Bayonne Councilman-at-large Tony
Chiappone said yesterday. 

"The integrity of the
ordinance will be maintained.
There were no changes with
regard to preferred locations
and that is the core of the
ordinance," he said. The
mediation session with Nextel ran four hours. 

The ordinance, adopted in May 2001, requires an applicant to make a 
case before the Board of Adjustment, showing that it is not feasible 
or effective to erect its antennas in an industrial district or other 
preferred area. Only then would the company be able to install its 
antennas at a less preferred site, such as one in a residential 
neighborhood. 

Chiappone said Nextel opposed all language in the ordinance regarding 
location preferences, but he and Board of Adjustments counsel Richard 
N.  Campisano presented arguments defending the system. 

Nextel also objected to the ordinance's classification of different 
types of antenna installations, but accepted them after Chiappone and 
Campisano explained that portion of the ordinance in detail. 
Finally, Nextel objected to fees for permits to put up wireless 
antenna sites, and fees to register the sites. Those items will be 
removed from the ordinance. Instead, fees for inspection of antenna 
sites will be required every two years. 

The permit and registration fees were included in the ordinance as a 
means of taking an inventory of existing antenna structures in the 
city, Chiappone said. They serve as a means to determine if an 
installation has been modified in a way that would make it illegal, he 
said. 

"We can do the same thing through inspections every two years, and we 
would include a radio frequency check of the antennas to ensure they 
arecomplying with FCC standards," he said. 

Chiappone said the antenna ordinance will be redrafted and introduce 
to the City Council as an amended ordinance, most likely at the 
October meeting. 

Nextel spokeswoman Diane Rainey said her company was very happy with 
the mediation. 

"We thought the mediation went very well and we are still working on 
final language for the ordinance," Rainey said. 

Nextel Communications filed a lawsuit against the city last year after 
its application to put cell phone antennas on top of a building at 
Kennedy Boulevard and 34th Street was denied under the ordinance. 
It then also challenged the constitutionality of the Antenna 
Ordinance, Campisano said. 

But Superior Court Judge Maurice Gallipolli ordered Nextel and the 
city to engage in the mediation to resolve the issue, and Nextel 
agreed to withdraw its appeal of the denial pending the outcome of the 
mediation, Campisano said. 
Chiappone and former Bayonne City Councilman Nicholas Capodice 
co-chaired the Bayonne Antenna Committee that drew up the antenna 
ordinance. 

Kearny, Harrison and East Newark also have passed ordinances intended 
to force wireless companies to look to industrial zones before 
residential areas as sites for new antennas. Wireless companies have 
also met public opposition in Jersey City and West New York. 
Michaelangelo Conte can be reached at [email-masked]

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-1/106154708230074
0.xml

------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~-->
Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark
Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511
http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/61FxlB/TM
---------------------------------------------------------------------~->

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/