Unity zoning panel OKs small cell antennae in Whitney, Hostetter

Six small cellular antennae soon could be rising above the Unity villages of Hostetter and Whitney. The township zoning hearing board this week approved the devices meant to improve service for Verizon wireless customers.

Chairman Matt Cavalier, Timothy Thomas, Dorothy Zello and Judge Jim Kelley granted a special exception allowing access provider ExteNet Systems of Lisle, Ill., to place the devices in the township’s residential zone. Jackie Nindel and Kathy Matta were absent.

The board also approved a variance permitting the antennae to exceed the normal maximum height of 35 feet. Mounted atop wooden utility poles, they will rise between slightly more than 35 feet and 41 feet above the ground, project officials testified at Tuesday’s hearing.

Such small node antennae have been cropping up on poles in other communities in Southwestern Pennsylvania, but these apparently are the first proposed in Unity, township Solicitor Gary Falatovich said.

Two residents in the affected area south of Arnold Palmer Regional Airport objected to the devices.

Tom Rabic, who lives next to one of the cell sites, on Whitney’s Whyle Row, expressed concern about potential adverse effects from the antennae. “I hear a lot about these radio waves,” he said.

Jim Rickard, a radio frequency department manager for Verizon, testified that the devices are low-powered and will operate within Federal Communications Commission safety limitations on radio frequency emissions.

“We’re not allowed to interfere with other technologies or equipment,” such as garage door openers, Rickard added.

The cell equipment will generate about 40 watts of power, according to Christopher Schubert, an Exton attorney representing ExteNet. Pointing to light fixtures on the ceiling of the hearing room, he said, “Each one of those ballasts will put off a lot more power than that.”

Poles have been placed — in anticipation of mounting the antennae and related electronics — in public rights-of-way along Whyle, Saint Cecelia Road and Third Street, near the ball fields in Whitney; and along Charles Houck and American Legion roads and at Down Street and Quinn Road in Hostetter.

Township supervisors have an agreement in place with ExteNet for five sites and are expected to soon vote on the sixth, Falatovich said.

Down Street resident Eric Puskar asked why Verizon couldn’t place one large antennae in a more remote location instead of six small ones close to local homes.

Rickard said the small antennae are meant to relieve some of the wireless user demand on large cell towers in the township, including ones near Mountain View and Lycippus.

Adding a new large tower, he said, would repeat the problems with the existing ones. “You have large coverage footprints,” Rickard said. “It covers more users than the site can support,” leading to “a poor user experience because too many people are on it.”

Project manager Matt Sturgill said ExteNet doesn’t position its antennae on West Penn Power poles because the utility company’s restrictions mean it would have to place much of its equipment next to each pole, in cabinets on the ground.

A previous proposal by SBA Towers to erect a large cell tower for Verizon’s use at nearby Pershing Park, along Arnold Palmer Drive, was successfully challenged in court by neighboring residents.