Mediation is likely next step in cell tower appeal

The next step in a lawsuit filed against the North Huntingdon commissioners by Horvath Towers V, LLC will likely be a mediation held with both sides by a Westmoreland County judge, an attorneysaid.

On June 16, attorneys for Horvath Towers, the company that hopes to build a Verizon cell tower on the Kerber farm, filed an action in the Westmoreland County Court of Common Pleas, appealing the commissioners’ May 17 vote to deny the tower’s site plan.

On Nov. 1, 2016, the North Huntingdon Zoning Hearing Board voted to grant a variance to allow the tower to be built on the farm in a residentialarea.

At a March 6 meeting by the township’s planning commission, Mr. Kerber, a planningcommission member, excused himself from the vote about the cell tower. Other membersof the planning commission voted to recommend thetower’s approval.

At the March 15 North Huntingdon commissioners’ meeting, the room was full, withpeople sitting on the floor andstanding along the walls.

Most residents objecting to the tower did so because of healthconcerns.

The commissioners decided that Horvath Towers and Verizon would have to go through the township's conditional use process to build the tower. The conditional use process would have given the townshipthe ability to impose conditions on the structure, suchas a height limit.

Township solicitor Bruce Dice said that if the companies met the township’s conditional use requirements, the commissioners would have to approve the tower, but if the firms did not go through the conditional use process, the township would have grounds to reject it.

Verizon and Horvath Communications did not submit a conditional use application.

In their appeal, the companies said they did not file one because communication towers are not considered a conditional use under the township’s ordinance.

In the document, attorneys Joseph Cortese and Joseph Perotti Jr. wrote that neither the objectors nor the township provided evidence that the cell tower would be hazardous, and that there are no alternative locations for a cell phone tower that would cover the gap in their cell signal coverage area.

Mr. Dice said the companies filed a statutory appeal, which takes on a different character than a regular appeal.

A judge will be assigned to the case, call in both parties to hear both sides of the dispute, and then the judge will make a decision to either uphold, modify or reverse the commissioners’ decision, he said.

Mr. Dice said he is not sure when the mediation will occur.