Highlands Coalition

• Help protect the Highlands ridges and wildlife

Hearing Wednesday, May 12, 8:00 P.M., Sparta Township Board of Zoning Adjustment

Mountain Broadcasting Co. (MBC) has applied to the Sparta Township Board of Zoning Adjustment for variances to build a 695-foot commercial television tower in Sparta Township on state public land - the Weldon Brook Wildlife Management Area - in the Sparta Mountains, directly adjacent to Jefferson Township, Mahlon Dickerson Reservation and the Highlands Trail.

This blatantly inappropriate use of state conservation land, which has the support of the NJ Department of Environmental Protection, would have severe adverse impacts on wildlife, in particular neotropical migratory songbirds, as well as on major public recreational and scenic resources of the Highlands.

WOULD THE TV TOWER ADVERSELY IMPACT WILDLIFE?

Yes. "Telecommunications towers and the guy wires that help hold them in place are a serious threat to our avian population." (New Jersey Audubon, Winter 1998-99) "...Four million birds are killed in collisions with communication towers, particularly those higher than 200 feet, in eastern North America alone each year." (Ornithological Council Towerkill Resolution) The problem is caused by the aviation warning lights on the towers. On nights with a low ceiling, migrating birds lose their cues for stellar and geomagnetic navigation. Tower lights reflect off water molecules in the air, creating an illuminated area that draws a whirlpool of birds circling and striking the tower and guy wires in the lighted space. An retired meteorologist observes that the proposed tower site is prone to be shrouded in fog or clouds due to orographic (upslope) lifting of moisture laden easternly winds.

Over 70 species of songbirds that fly from Central and South America to breed and nest in eastern North America use the forested ridges of the Highlands as migration corridors. Neotropical songbirds are already in serious decline. Evidence collected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Office of Migratory Bird Management, since the 1960’s on tower bird kills in the U.S. [703-358-1963, email: Albert Manville@fws.gov] shows kills of roughly 1,000-3,000 birds per incident. Many bird kill cases show a very high percent of forest neotropical long-distance migrants, especially thrushes, ovenbirds, vireos, and numerous species of warblers. A table summarizing over 100 television tower collisions in the US and Canada was included in a report by Leslie J. Evans Ogden for the World Wildlife Fund and the Fatal Light Awareness Program (FLAP). In fact, current Federal Communications Commission policy states that broadcast towers should be as far as possible away from migratory bird corridors.

DOES THE PROPOSED TOWER COMPLY WITH STATE POLICY FOR TOWERS?

No. On August 18, 1997, the Office of the State Treasurer issued an "Official News Release" on its policies regarding the construction of cellular towers on state-owned land, which included a statement that "includ[ed] the prohibition of sites in state-owned parklands, wetlands, nature areas, wild and scenic areas and wildlife sanctuaries." The release also noted a "provision that would enable local officials to put a stop to any project by expressing their disapproval in the form of a municipal resolution." (The state now claims that the process formalizing the inclusion of these constraints was never finalized.)

DOES THE LEASE ISSUED BY NJDEP TO MOUNTAIN BROADCASTING COMPLY WITH STATE LAW? No. The lease clearly does not comply with spirit of the law, Chapter 38 of 1993, which requires that all "conveyances" of state lands acquired with Green Acres funds or administered by the Department of Environmental Protection, including sales, exchanges, and leases of 25 years or more, be reviewed through a process including preparation of an environmental assessment report, and two public hearings, prior to going before the State House Commission, which must approve such conveyances. In order to avoid these provisions of law, in July of 1998 NJDEP signed a 24-year lease of the tower site, with a 10- year renewal clause, having obtained the approval of the State House Commission on June 25, 1998, without the benefit of an environmental assessment or public hearings. The legality of this contract needs to be reviewed.

WHY IS NJDEP SUPPORTING THIS PROPOSED TOWER?

While the true reason may not be apparent, the lease with Mountain Broadcasting would pay Fish, Game and Wildlife $25,000 per year, with adjustments every four years based on the Consumer’s Price Index, plus half of all revenues from the rental of antenna space to others. MBC would also build a 30-car parking lot on the site for public use. However, inferences that this would provide the only public access to the site appear unfounded. The old Edison Mine abandoned railroad bed, which intersects with Haywards Road, off Milton Road in Sparta Township, provides access to the Weldon Brook WMA, as well as connecting to the Sparta Mountain WMA to the north and Mahlon-Dickerson Reservation to the south.

WHAT IS UNDER CONSIDERATION BY THE SPARTA ZONING BOARD ?

The Sparta Township Board of Zoning Adjustment is considering Mountain Broadcasting’s request for a "d" variance under the Municipal Land Use Law (MLUL). The variance requested is for an extreme departure from the existing residential zoning and 35’ height limit. According to the MLUL, "No variance or other relief may be granted under the terms of this section [d] unless such variance or other relief can be granted without substantial detriment to the public good and will not substantially impair the intent and the purpose of the zone plan and zoning ordinance." Approval of a "d" variance requires five affirmative votes of the board.

THE PROPOSED TOWER WILL HAVE SEVERE AND IRREVERSIBLE NEGATIVE IMPACTS ON THE PUBLIC GOOD.

When the State of New Jersey purchased the land to create Weldon Brook WMA in 1997, it expended substantial public monies to do so. The purpose of state acquisition was to protect and preserve its environmental values for the benefit of the public. Weldon Brook is part of the Sparta Mountains Greenway that extends along the westernmost ridge of the New Jersey Highlands from Wawayanda State Park and Hamburg Mountain WMA in Sussex County, southwest to Allamuchy State Park in Warren County. The tower will damage the interests of govenments at all levels - federal, state, county and local - as well as citizens’ groups and private land trusts, that have been working to protect lands along this greenway. The tower will degrade the very resources the puchase was intended

to protect: open space, wildlife and wildlife habitat, scenic, recreational, and wilderness values.

WHAT WOULD SCENIC AND RECREATIONAL IMPACTS OF THE TOWER BE?

The tower would impair major scenic and recreational public resources, including nearby Sparta Mountain State Wildlife Management Area, Morris County’s Mahlon-Dickerson Reservation and the Highlands Trail, which would pass very near the tower. The tower would be potentially visible from any viewpoint in the entire New Jersey Highlands region, as well as from the Appalachian Trail in the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area, a distance of less than 20 miles. The scenic and wilderness aspects of the Highlands region would be severely degraded.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Contact Governor Whitman, asking her to review the lease and intervene to prevent this travesty of public lands stewardship. The Honorable Christine Todd Whitman, Governor, P.O. Box 001, State House, Trenton, New Jersey 08625-0001. Phone: 609-292-6000 Fax: 609-292-3454

2. Write to Robert C. Shinn, Jr., Commissioner, NJ Department of Environmental Protection, P.O. Box 402, Trenton, NJ 08625-0360. Phone: 609-292-2885 Fax: 609-292-7695

3. Write Letters to the Editor of local, regional and statewide newspapers.

4. Contact your state Senator and Assemblypersons.

5. Attend hearings of the Sparta Zoning Board of Adjustment. The next hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, May 12 at 8:00 P.M. For future hearing dates, call 973-729-8093. The Board generally meets the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month.

6. Sparta residents, contact the Sparta Township Council.

Directions to Sparta Town Hall (On Main St./Rt. 517):

From Rt. 80 take Exit 34B to Jefferson, Sparta.

Follow Rt. 15 North about 8 miles until exit for Sparta Business District, Lake Mohawk, Rt. 181.

Bear right at end of exit ramp. Proceed to Rt. 181 North.

At second traffic light (about 1.5 mi.), bear right onto Main St/ Rt. 517. (Theater Plaza on the right.)

Proceed through the next traffic light, with a shopping center to the left. Sparta Municipal Complex is about .3 miles past this light, on the right. The Municipal Bldg. sits up high, the parking lot is beyond it. If you go through the underpass under Rt. 15, you have gone too far!

For further information:

Friends of Holland Mtn: 973-208-0602

The Highlands Coalition/NJ Conservation Foundation: Wilma Frey 908-234-1225