Cell Tower Ordinance Set For Special Meeting In Point Pleasant Beach

POINT PLEASANT BEACH, NJ — The Point Pleasant Beach Borough Council is scheduled to hold a special meeting on Friday to discuss next steps in the borough's efforts to control the placement of cellular signal towers in town.

The meeting is set for 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 2, the day after the deadline the borough issued to Munisite to remove five 5G cell towers the company has partially constructed in the borough.

Mayor Douglas Vitale said the company was told in writing on July 8 to remove the towers because the Borough Council had not seen the specifications of how the towers would look.

Munisite had received approvals in October 2023 to begin the process to put up poles at eight sites in town, Vitale said at the June council meeting, something the borough had resisted completely until a ruling by the Federal Communications Commission in 2018 that said cellular phone companies had the right put up cell signal infrastructure.

"We were provided details and design specs but the council did not see" renderings of how the towers would look, Vitale said. "We had no idea what they were putting in the ground was an eyesore."

Munisite received its CAFRA permits for the first eight sites on Dec. 8, 2023, and on Dec. 23, they were approved by the borough's building department. It wasn't until April, when construction began, that officials saw how ugly the poles looked, Vitale said.

The five poles partially constructed so far are on Niblick Street at Ocean Avenue, at the Inlet, on Water Street, and on Broadway at the street end at the Boardwalk.

Vitale met with Munisite officials on July 8, with Borough Administrator Christine Riehl, Borough Attorney Michael Collins, and attorney Jean Cipriani, the borough's special counsel on the cell tower issue, to discuss the issues regarding the 5G poles, including aesthetics, location, and the borough’s small wireless facility ordinance.

The council is set to move forward with the ordinance at Friday's special meeting.

In addition to the meeting, the borough formally ordered Munisite to remove the poles; the letter from Cipriani to the company is below.

Vitale said the removal of the current poles is temporary because the "installation of 5G infrastructure within the borough is inevitable under federal law."