By Danny Teigman
With zoning board approval, a new telecommunications array will bring such a high-tech leap forward to the City of Long Beach that you'll be able to watch the program the palm of your hand.
Crown Castle Mobile Media of Mahwah, N.J. has applied to build a nearly 9-feet tall antenna atop the apartment building at 370 W. Broadway that would greatly enhance the telecommunications options of Long Beach residents.
Daniel Braff, an attorney for CCMM, said the antenna will be a commercial provider of wireless video and audio signals and could send television signals, live, to portable electronic devices, including cell phones, PDAs and perhaps next generation iPods. The project would include a 36-inch satellite dish, a smaller GPS antenna and a seven-foot tall utility cabinet.
Three other antennas, which are yet to be constructed by CCMM, have already been approved by the Town of Hempstead and others are pending. "With a mere whip antenna, CCMM will be able to provide its advanced digital mobile technology to the residents of the City of Long Beach and surrounding communities," Braff said.
But zoning board trustee Friedrich Hinsch said he felt that the antenna should be designed to withstand wind speeds of up to 110 m.p.h. and not the proposed 85 m.p.h., since Long Beach is vulnerable to tropical storms and hurricanes. Additionally, the zoning board's counsel, Corey Klein, questioned the location of the antenna and asked why the array could not be placed on other pre-existing cell towers, minimizing its visual impact.
In response, Edwin Quinn, a radio frequency engineer for Crown Castle, said that two other locations were considered on Riverside Boulevard and on Industrial Place in Island Park but both locations were deemed unsatisfactory because their signals wouldn't reach the West End of Long Beach. By placing the array at the proposed location, the entire City of Long Beach along with parts of Island Park will receive coverage.
The amicable nature of the proposal contrasts with another, larger cell phone tower which is being built behind the West End firehouse. That tower was originally proposed for a West Beech Street commercial property, but concerns by fire officials about roof access (as well as whispers about its proximity to the Georgia Park playground) led the zoning board to reject. Instead, the tower was constructed on the roof of the West End firehouse and the rent goes into the city's pockets, rather than the private building owners.
That the tower is about as close to the West School playground as the Georgia playground was not considered.
Klein said that the city has laws in place to protect residents from excessive telecommunication tower construction, but its teeth are somewhat dull. For instance, towers can be no closer than a quarter mile from one another and when possible, facility sharing is encouraged. "The city is very limited as to its powers to regulate telecommunication towers as it's pre-empted by the federal government," he said. "We can try to control it but we can't deny it."
Comments about this story? DMiller@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
