Lower Saucon supervisors reject proposed Steel City cell tower

LOWER SAUCON TWP., Pa. — Following closing arguments, Lower Saucon Township Council had 45 days to make a decision on a Verizon cell tower going up in the Steel City neighborhood.

However, the panel went ahead and denied the project application on March 20.

The vote was 2-2.

Councilmen Jason Banonis and Thomas Carocci voted in favor, while Councilwomen Victoria Opthof-Cordaro and Laura Ray voted against the measure.

A tie meant the proposal was shot down, according to interim township solicitor Steven Goudsouzian.

Council President Priscilla deLeon abstained.

She happens to live on property close to the proposed tower site.

Courtesy

/

Colliers Engineering & Design

Project background

Allentown SMSA Limited Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, had preliminary approval from the current landowners to make use of the 10.93-acre property at 4235 Lewis Ave.

However, the applicant still needed conditional use approval from the township council.

The unmanned telecommunications facility was planned to include a 125-foot tower — with another five feet to the top of its lightning rod — panel antennas, equipment cabinets and a diesel, standby generator on a ground-level concrete pad.

The project's application stated the tower was "necessary to provide efficient wireless service to the public, the neighborhood, Lower Saucon Township and to individuals traveling in the area, including emergency, police, and fire users.”

Council dialogue

With other exhibits and further oral arguments entered into the record on March 20, Councilwoman Victoria Opthof-Cordaro said it wasn’t the right time to vote on the matter.

“I think it’s irresponsible to make a shotgun decision this evening without having that benefit of hearing from our counsel,” Opthof-Cordaro said.

“So I would prefer that we not vote this evening so that we can deliberate appropriately under the guidance of our solicitor.”

Councilwoman Laura Ray said she felt the panel was being “pinned into a corner.”

Banonis said they’ve had time to research the case for months now.

Closing arguments

Catherine Durso, the applicant’s attorney, said the tower is good to go in the Rural Agricultural district.

She said the burden doesn’t lie on Verizon to exhaustively search the area for the perfect property and location for the project.

“They’re also not required to prove general nonspecific or nonobjective standards such as compatibility with the neighborhood,” Durso said.

She said a denial of the conditional use application meant the township would be “unlawfully prohibiting the provision of wireless communication services in violation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996.”

“The FCC has interpreted the act to prohibit a government action that materially limits or inhibits the ability of any competitor or potential competitor to compete in a fair and balanced legal and regulatory environment,” Durso argued.

Attorney Matthew Deschler represented some opposing residents from the Steel City neighborhood.

“I don’t think that the application has met its burden to show the specific objective criteria that would entitle it to this conditional use for the [FCC] tower,” Deschler said.

To abstain or not to abstain

Before the vote, Councilmen Jason Banonis and Thomas Carocci said deLeon was in no position to be part of the matter.

She reportedly recused herself in what Carocci called “minor” cases from 2004 involving the same property — one he said was a lot consolidation and another involved a structure abutting a public road.

“What’s happened in those 20 years? Ego, lack of integrity, lack of ethics,” Carocci said.

“It’s a slippery slope for Ms. deLeon.”

“This pattern of conduct is highly troubling,” Banonis said.

“I think it’s outrageous, and I think it exposes the township to litigation.

“I know the township’s gonna get sued on this — and rightfully so. If you refuse to recuse yourself and willfully participate in a process that you have such conflicts on and have such bias on, the township deserves to get sued.”

DeLeon later read a statement of recusal into the record.

“While I personally do not believe a recusal is required or necessary, to avoid any potential issue and to avoid any appearance of any potential issue, I have made the decision to recuse myself and to not vote on the conditional use hearing,” deLeon said.

She also submitted her letter from the State Ethics Commission for the record, which made an argument for deLeon being safe to make a vote on the motion.

“[She] had to be guilted into it,” Carocci said in response.

He said the timing of bringing forward a recusal and choosing to abstain the night of closing comments was suspicious.

'Absurd'

“Somehow, the people on this commissioner board, or township board, think that they can skirt around ethics issues. Why?” township resident Ann Marie Slavick said.

“And then I want to know why are the citizens allowing it?”

Steel City resident Atom Kallen said the tower going up would be a bad idea, and that Banonis and Carocci were both “absurd.”

Some residents of the neighborhood and township as a whole came forward with concerns about the applicant’s property assessment process, driveway access to the proposed site, as well as a tower’s potential stormwater runoff and effects on landscape characteristics.

Maia Simon, Lower Saucon resident, sent an email to the township on the issue.

Township Manager Mark Hudson read her message into the record, which said the tower would alter neighborhood character; negatively impact property values, health and safety; and comes with “no evidence of need.”

Slavick later said cell towers are just a part of modern life and something we all use.