Lake Como Mulls Referendum on WRAT Tower

Mayor Michael Ryan wants to find out how many Lake Como residents support the WRAT-FM plan to relocate its radio transmission tower to Behrmann Park.

He also wold like to find out how many borough residents oppose it.

 “This is a democracy. We’d like to hear what everyone has to say about this,” Ryan said during Tuesday night’s borough council meeting.

Ryan and the council have asked Borough Attorney William Gallagher to draft a referendum question for November’s general election ballot about the to the Green Acres-protected Behrmann Park.

Gallagher is expected to present a draft of the referendum
question for review at the council's Aug. 16 meeting. Referendum questions must be submitted to the Monmouth County Board of Elections by Aug. 19 to be printed on the ballots.

The referendum will ask voters if they support a council proposal to seek a state-sanctioned Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) diversion of protected land inside the park. Greater Media, the owner of WRAT-FM, has asked the council to seek the diversion so it can construct a 533-foot-high tower and ancillary building in the park’s southwest corner.  

If Lake Como were to be granted the DEP diversion, Greater Media will have cleared the first hurdle toward raising its heightened radio transmission tower on 4,000 square feet within the borough-owned park. The company would then remove its existing 300-foot-high radio transmission tower on Main Street and 18^th Avenue in the borough’s downtown.

The decision about whether or not the tower will be built in Behrmann Park rests with the state DEP, not the governing body, Ryan reminded those in attendance.

“The mayor and council do not have a dog in this fight,” Ryan said.

The governing body is only empowered to decide whether or not to ask the DEP to divert the proposed tower site from Green Acres protection so that Greater Media can develop it, Ryan said.

“We are following the guidelines established by the state,” Ryan said.

The council will not be forming a tower commission as had previously been considered, he added. Instead, the referendum will be used to gauge voter sentiment on both sides.

Since May 2, when the council passed an ordinance that changed local zoning laws to permit towers over 500 feet to be raised within the town’s borders, Ryan and council members about the structure proposed by Greater Media.

About “80 percent” of the feedback on the tower—most of it negative—has come from , and Wall Township according to Ryan and Councilman Jared Cohen.

Ryan and Cohen say they are not moved by protests from out-of-towners.

“I want to hear from the people that I represent,” Cohen said after the meeting.

Spring Lake officials filed a civil suit against Lake Como in Monmouth County Superior Court last month because they were not notified of the public hearing on that ordinance. The planned tower site is within 200 feet of Marucci Park and homes in that borough.

However, now that a referendum is planned, the c to repeal the one approved in May.

A second reading and public hearing on the latest ordinance is also set for the Aug. 16 agenda.

With the new ordinance pending, members of the Concerned Citizens of Lake Como have put a motion to intervene in the Spring Lake lawsuit on temporary hold according to Denise O’Hara, an attorney representing the grassroots group.

O’Hara confirmed that she has asked the Monmouth County Superior Court to carry the motion forward from an expected hearing this
Friday to Sept. 2.

The citizen group, composed of residents living closest to the proposed tower site, remains vigilant in spite of the council’s actions, O’Hara said.

“We’ll take the appropriate actions to fight the relocation of the radio communications tower to Behrmann Park,” said O’Hara, a borough resident.

Gretchen Schmidhausler, a member of the citizen group, asked Ryan why the council would seek a referendum after already hearing public comment during the June 22 scoping hearing on the Green Acres diversion.

“Why do you feel that the public comment from the scoping hearing is not sufficient?” Schmidhausler asked.

A referendum limited to Lake Como voters would not give residents in neighboring communities a chance to object, she added.

“The people in the other towns and our neighbors are not going to tell us what is good for us,” Ryan replied. “There are just as many people in town in favor of (relocating the tower). We need to take a look at the numbers.”

Schmidhausler questioned Ryan about where she could find Lake Como residents in favor of putting the tower in the park.

“I’m wondering if there is another forum where people are expressing support,” she said.

Councilwoman Marni McFadden-Lee told Schmidhausler that residents who support relocating the tower did not attend the scoping hearing or other public meetings about the issue.

“Most people only come to these meetings when they have an objection,” McFadden-Lee said. “Outside of here, we are approached by people in favor of moving the tower.”

If the tower is constructed, Greater Media plans to lease the land from Lake Como for $54,000 annually.  Ryan has estimated a property tax decrease of 1.5 cents each year of the lease. Those savings amount to $118 to $122 yearly on a home assessed at the borough average of $350,000, the mayor has said.