Government

Lavallette, Verizon End 5G Battle In Settlement Approving New Towers

by
Daniel Nee
December 5, 2024

A small 5G wireless facility on top of an existing timber pole, Lavallette, N.J., May 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

Lavallette officials overwhelmingly voted in favor of settling litigation with Verizon over the construction of 5G towers in the borough, though the call was not unanimous.

Under the terms of the settlement, Verizon will be able to install additional small cell nodes in town – most on existing utility poles and some on new poles to be provided by Verizon – in exchange for some concessions over growth and the wireless provider installing free lightning detection systems on top of the tower infrastructure.

The settlement was authorized in a 6-1 vote by the borough council two weeks ago after a closed, executive session meeting, and the details were shared with the public this week after being cleared by a federal judge. Mayor Walter LaCicero said the decision was made to settle the litigation after he and William Burns, the borough attorney, were advised by Federal District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi that it was unlikely the borough, the defendant in the case, would prevail in a protracted battle with Verizon, a company with a market cap of about $179 billion. Verizon enjoys several layers of federal protection from intervention by local governments in the siting of 5G towers through various acts of Congress as well as FCC regulations.

“This is the same judge that would have heard the case if it had gone to court,” LaCicero explained at Monday’s council meeting, where the settlement was ratified in another 6-1 vote. Councilwoman Joanne Filippone, a vocal opponent of the proliferation of the towers in town, cast the lone dissenting vote.

A small 5G wireless facility on top of an existing timber pole, Lavallette, N.J., May 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

Verizon filed suit against the borough Dec. 13, 2023, the final day it was eligible to do so, alleging the borough violated the Telecommunications Act of 1996 when it turned down the wireless provider’s request to add an additional tranche of pole-mounted 4G and 5G antennas at various addresses town-wide. The so-called “small cell” nodes are located on top of existing utility poles, and in some cases Verizon had proposed installing new poles where equipment would be hung in order to close gaps in the network’s data and voice coverage due to the company’s woes over frequency spectrum.

The council denied Verizon a permit to install the six new sites in November 2023. Arguing that Verizon was disproportionately flooding the town with antennas, installing heavy loads on utility poles that were prone to leaning, misleading residents and officials about their locations and providing little to no explanation as to why so many towers seemed to be required in Lavallette versus neighboring communities.

Under the terms of the settlement, Verizon will get to install the towers that were already proposed, but will otherwise adhere to an 18-month moratorium on any additional tower proposals. A tower to be located on Philadelphia Avenue will include a lightning detection system paid for by Verizon which will be under Lavallette’s control (as opposed to an existing lightning detector that is linked to Ortley Beach’s system), plus a future lightning detection tower along the bay at a location to be determined.

The locations of the future towers are:

72 Oceanfront (revised)
2 President (revised)
122 Newark Ave. (new plan)
100 Oceanfront (revised)
110 White Ave. (revised
506 Oceanfront (revised)

Verizon also agreed to soil testing that will determine whether it is safe to install new poles and place loads on existing poles, and some of the nodes will be installed with customized “shrouds” that are smaller than usual to improve their aesthetic appearance. The borough will also collect outstanding fees from Verizon.

A small cell 5G node installed along Route 35 in Lavallette, March 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

A small 5G wireless facility on top of an existing timber pole, Lavallette, N.J., May 2023. (Photo: Shorebeat)

LaCicero said there was significant interest in the Lavallette case from residents of Spring Lake, in Monmouth County, which is engaging in a similar battle with Verizon. In that case, however, the legal fees are being funded by a group of residents rather than the taxpayers as a whole, enabling the case to continue as long as the group is willing to continue funding the effort. In the Lavallette case, the mayor and Burns attended several mediation sessions with Verizon representatives, ultimately being persuaded by the judge that a settlement would likely be the town’s best option moving forward.

Verizon, in the mediation sessions, refused to consider Lavallette’s requests to limit the ratio of pole placements to population or similar limitations to the growth of the small cell nodes in town – the type of issues largely precluded by federal law in Verizon’s favor – beyond the voluntary moratorium.

Filippone, for her part, said she felt Lavallette had been “targeted” by the company and exposed to a larger mesh of 5G towers as compared to other Shore area communities.

“They’ve singled us out,” said Filippone, on Wednesday. “These five new additional nodes will bring us to 16 poles in Lavallette alone.”

Verizon is the only wireless provider to have proposed small cell nodes in Lavallette, with a company engineer having explained at a previous council meeting that the frequency spectrum on which Verizon’s network is based dates back to much of the original spectrum reserved for wireless carriers early in the advent of the wireless revolution. While these frequencies are arguably best for overall coverage penetration, they are lower in nature than those which other carriers obtained in later government auctions, and need more “nodes” to ensure high-speed 5G coverage in a large area. Many of the small cell nodes installed in Lavallette also contain 4G “boosters” to relay LTE signals.

“I’ve been opposed to them from the very beginning,” said Filippone. “I don’t blame Verizon entirely – you have to start with the federal government and its ignorance. Don’t tell me the standard in 1996 exactly fits in 2024. Small cell nodes weren’t even in existence, so what have you tested?”

Filippone also questioned the need for new small cell nodes in Lavallette after larger, permanent towers were installed or approved in Ortley Beach, Normandy Beach and Brick Township over the past year alone.

“After it went to the council and we voted it down and pursued the lawsuit, all of the sudden we have a big tower going up by Used to Be’s,” said Filippone. “They turned around and put up a bunch of new towers – where’s the proof you still need to have more in Lavallette?”

Verizon always maintained that the company did not treat Lavallette differently than any other community.

“These installations are taking place all over the Jersey Shore,” Verizon attorney Edward Purcell said. “The need here is acute and without these nodes there is not going to be sufficient service during the summer months. It is imperative that Verizon be able to provide the services we need to provide.”

A small cell 5G node installed along Route 35 in Lavallette, March 2022. (Photo: Daniel Nee)

The company has faced pushback against its small cell node deployments in Belmar and Point Pleasant Beach in addition to Spring Lake.

LaCicero said he and Burns would continue to monitor the ongoing local cases, and urged residents to keep in mind that with the rapid evolution of technology, the 5G nodes may not be permanent features in town – comparing them at one point to giant satellite dishes that once concerned municipal governments before giving way to smaller dishes and, more recently, streaming apps that have pared down the number of dishes entirely.

Still, Filippone said she could not support the possibility of ever-more applications for towers in the future, with little control over where they will be located.

“Just because you can win the lawsuit doesn’t mean it’s right,” she said.