By JACOB FENTON
Bucks County Courier Times

May 12, 2007 4:15 AM

The Warminster supervisors unanimously voted against allowing a 110-foot cell-phone tower to be built at the firehouse at Madison Avenue and Ivy Street after hearing strong opposition from neighbors who packed Thursday's meeting.

“The residents have spoken,” Supervisor Donnamarie Davis said. “It just proves that people can make a difference.”

Earlier this week, residents dropped off a petition signed by 200 people opposing the tower.

Officially, Thursday's vote was against settling a lawsuit filed by the corporate parent of cell phone company T-Mobile. The suit appealed July's zoning hearing board decision denying a 120-foot-tall tower. The company had proposed a slightly shorter tower in an attempt at a compromise, though engineers have said that anything shorter wouldn't work.

To Gregg Roosevelt, who lives across the street from the firehouse, the issue was a no-brainer.

“I don't want it there,” he said. “I don't want it that close to my house.”

The fire company would have gotten $18,000 a year for renting the property where the tower was to be built.

Davis thought the telephone company hadn't done enough research into other locations, such as the top of a nearby church steeple.

Roosevelt and other residents believed the tower could cause health problems, even though an engineer's report found that someone standing next to the tower would be exposed to less than one-thousandth the maximum amount of radiation deemed safe by the Federal Communications Commission.

The decision likely means the sides will fight it out in court. That will probably cost the township between $2,500 and $4,000 initially, according to Solicitor Stephen Harris, although additional appeals would add to that.

Supervisor Fred Gold said he found hard to believe T-Mobile's assertion that the tower would not lower property values. The value of the property might not be lowered, Gold said, but if he was the buyer, the sale would be off.
Jacob Fenton can be reached at 215-957-8166 or jfenton@phillyBurbs.com.