First Posted: 11/20/2014
A South Abington Township Zoning Board hearing scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 20, in regard to a variance request from Verizon Wireless, was cancelled, due to a withdrawal of the application, according to township manager David O’Neill.
The application for variance was to permit the erection of a 100-foot-tall cell phone tower shaped like a flagpole with an American flag on top on the property of Baptist Bible College and Seminary. With the proposed site located approximately 100 feet from the municipal line between South Abington and the Borough of Clarks Green in a low-density residential zoning district, however, the college received some negative feedback on the proposal from its neighbors.
The newly chosen location places the tower approximately 1,200 feet away from the first site in a wooded area behind the campus athletic center.
Clarks Green resident Leila Walsh, of Clark Street, who previously spoke out against the first proposed location of the tower, said she is, for now at least, satisfied with the compromise and grateful to BBC and Verizon for not only taking into consideration the concerns voiced by the community, but also taking action.
“I haven’t seen on a map yet the new location,” she said, “but as of right now…I’m happy for the compromise, that they thought about the neighborhood and that they listened to us.”
O’Neill said as application for the new site is expected to be filed in early 2015.