Residents of the Rosen Terrace apartment and condominium complex, located at 8900 Boulevard East in North Bergen, are livid these days.
For starters, each resident has had to pay an average rent increase of $10 per month, they said, because a new roof was needed six months ago.
Then, the residents found out through word of mouth that the landlord has struck a lucrative deal to allow Verizon Communications to erect three cellular phone antennas on the roof that was recently repaired. One resident said she heard the deal is worth $2,500 per month, although this amount could not be confirmed.
“I don’t want it,” said a resident who requested anonymity. “I think there are health concerns with possible cancer-causing things. I think everyone in the area should be concerned, not just our building. We spent a lot of money to get the roof fixed. Why should I pay money so that the landlord could put these towers up there to get even more money?”
However, despite similar complaints in other towns, federal officials said that there is no health danger from cell phone antennas unless residents are standing right in front of them for long periods of time.
The owners of the complex went to the North Bergen Board of Adjustment hearing last week to file an application to have the cellular phone towers erected at the site.
But while the North Bergen Board of Adjustment has received several applications from the four competing cellular phone carriers – Verizon, AT&T, Omnipoint and Sprint – the board has yet to give approval to putting the antennas on the top of residential structures. It’s only given approval for commercial buildings.
According to Board of Adjustment attorney Gerald Monahan, the application process with the cellular phone carriers and prospective antennas is now out of hand.
“I’m in federal court with one application, and another case is going to Superior Court,” Monahan said. “These carriers are taking a very aggressive position and they’re not taking no for an answer. We’ve approved some that have been in appropriate spots, but they’re now looking for any available space and are apparently making deals with owners to put them on the tops of their buildings. And the applications just keep on coming.”
The initial application process brought approximately 45 residents of Rosen Terrace to Town Hall last Monday night for what was thought to be the initial hearing, but the meeting was postponed when Verizon representatives failed to supply “sufficient evidence.”
“We had a meeting of everyone before going to Town Hall that night,” an anonymous resident said. “We never had a showing in this lobby [the front lobby of the complex] like we had that night. Everyone wanted to go.”
Monahan said that the cell phone carriers are looking for what they describe as “seamless service” areas, because of the limitations of their signals and the area being as densely populated as it is. That is why the high-rise apartment complexes along Boulevard East are such attractive targets.
“They need as many as these locations as they can get,” Monahan said.
According to one of the Rosen Terrace residents, the adjacent complex, known as Bergen Ridge, has been approached by another carrier.
However, according to information posted on the Federal Communications Commission’s website, there is “no reason to believe that such towers could constitute a potential health hazard to nearby residents.”
The only danger would be to someone standing directly in front of a given cluster of antennas. This safety precaution would then only apply to people who either work or spend a lot of time on rooftops.
“The radiation is now a dead issue,” Monahan said. “They have to comply with the FCC regulations for the maximum allowed and the radio frequency. The radiation is just a fraction of the maximum.”
The FCC also says that the placement of cellular phone antennas is strictly a municipal or local zoning issue, so the FCC does not have an application process for them. The FCC would only step in if there was a violation to the Telecommunications Act of 1994 or if there was an environmental hazard posed by the antennas.
Monahan said that the Board of Adjustment has received “several” applications from building owners to put cell phone antennas on their buildings. So far, the only applications that have been processed have been for commercial buildings, bridges, and billboards.
The only way a municipality can prevent the installation of antennas that meet zoning guidelines is to stall the applications, which sometimes pushes them into court.
“The board wants to accommodate all interests,” Monahan said. “I know residents are against putting the equipment where they live and want these companies to find a commercial building. The residents are definitely saying, ‘Not in my backyard.’ ”
Added Monahan, “The board is very interested in these cases and will make the best decision. Because of the sensitivity of the issue, these applications tend to take longer than usual. There are more questions that need to be answered. Each board member takes his time before coming to a decision. It’s not like putting on an addition to a house. I honestly wish those days would come back.”
There is currently no North Bergen ordinance on the books that calls for cellular phone antennas.
“We are currently investigating with towns that are permitting it on residential buildings,” Monahan said. “Right now, they would need a variance before anything can be done. The laws say that they have to find somewhere else that can do the job, some less intrusive sites, but I believe that they are running out of those places.”
As long as those places are not on top of the Rosen Terrace apartments.
“We don’t want it,” the anonymous resident said. “That’s it in a nut shell.”
A man who didn’t want to reveal his name said, “I’m worried about my safety. This is a residential building. It’s a place where people live. There’s no way a structure like that should be on the roof. I don’t want some UFO falling on me someday when I walk outside. Based on what I know about it, I don’t like it.”
Representatives from Rosen Terrace did not return phone calls by press time.