Cell tower to rise atop roof

From the BCCT:

Cell tower to rise atop roof

By: DANNY ADLER
Bucks County Courier Times
A land use and two height variances cleared the way for T-Mobile Northeast to construct the 102-foot tower.
Three was the lucky number for T-Mobile Northeast LLC on Monday.
During the third session of a zoning hearing, zoning officials approved in a 3-0 vote three separate variances for the company's third proposal to bring a cell phone tower to Morrisville.
T-Mobile in May first proposed a 102-foot, three-sided cell tower "stealthed" as a clock tower in the parking lot of the Morrisville Shopping Center at East Trenton and North Pennsylvania avenues. That proposal was amended in June when the company said it would consider putting up a lattice tower and moving it to the roof of the Dollar Tree store there.
At Monday's hearing, the zoning hearing board approved a land use and two height variances for the third proposal - a tapered, white "flagless flagpole" where the antennas will be hidden inside the structure atop the store.
The cell tower, to stand atop the two-story building, will still top off at 102 feet from the parking lot ground, engineer and project manager Mario Calabretta said.



"It will still give us the height that we need for the antennas," Calabretta said of the tower, which T-Mobile hopes will fill a 2/3-square-mile coverage gap in Morrisville.
While a handful of residents have questioned whether T-Mobile needs to construct the tower in Morrisville, critics said they were pleased that the company listened to their and the zoning hearing board's concerns and revised their plans.
One of the critics, nearby Crown Street resident Bill Setzer, said he was surprised by Monday's amended plan.
"It is less intrusive than the original proposal," he said after the board's unanimous vote by members Steve Schmelzer, Andrew Redmond and Raffaele Persico.
Resident Deborah Colgan encouraged the board to deny the application, saying she didn't feel T-Mobile did enough to demonstrate that other locations couldn't be used for the cell tower.
"It's putting an unattractive utility at the entrance to our town," she said.

Cell tower hearing continues Monday night

Cell tower hearing continues Monday night

Posted in News on Sunday, July 5th, 2009 at 9:44 pm by Courier Times staff writer Danny Adler

Morrisville zoning officials will continue a hearing with T-Mobile Northeast LLC Monday night to consider a proposed cell phone tower at the Morrisville Shopping Center at East Trenton and North Pennsylvania avenues.

The original proposal before the Morrisville Zoning Hearing Board called for a 102-foot tower “stealthed” as a three-sided clock tower in the parking lot of the shopping center, a proposal that would eliminate nine parking spaces. After being questioned in May about possible alternative sites at the shopping center, T-Mobile came forward at a June hearing with a proposal for a lattice tower atop the Dollar Tree store there.

T-Mobile said they had to do a structural analysis to see if the alternative was a viable option. They are expected to update the zoning hearing board at 7:30 p.m. Monday at borough hall, 35 Union St.

T-Mobile hopes the tower will help T-Mobile fill a 2/3-square-mile coverage gap in the borough.