Belmar, N.J., Residents Seek to Intervene in Verizon’s Tower Fight vs. Monmouth County
Seven residents of Belmar, New Jersey, banding together as a grass-roots organization they call Belmar Against 5G Towers, seek to intervene in Verizon’s complaint to force Monmouth County’s approval of its application to install nine small wireless facilities (SWFs) in…
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the public rights of way (see 2309080048), said their memorandum Wednesday (docket 3:23-cv-18091) in U.S. District Court for New Jersey in support of their motion to intervene. They seek oral argument if opposition is filed to their motion. Verizon seeks an order requiring the county to approve the SWFs application and to execute a landowner consent form that Verizon claims is a necessary prerequisite for a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection coastal area facility review permit. Verizon alleges the county’s denial of its SWFs application was legally erroneous or invalid, and its failure to execute the consent form “is also legally erroneous or invalid,” said the residents’ memorandum. The residents “disagree on both counts,” and move for party status as defendant-intervenors, it said. The intervenors are individuals “who live and own property in the immediate vicinity” of the SWFs, and will be “directly and adversely affected” if the SWFs are built and go into operation, said their memorandum. The court “should allow them to intervene in the instant matter as a matter of right,” it said. The case will “impair or impede” their ability “to protect their interests,” and they aren’t “adequately represented” by the county, it said. Even if the residents aren’t permitted to intervene “as a matter of right,” they have “a significant interest in the outcome of the instant litigation,” said the memorandum. “They also have unique and additional claims that are not likely to be raised” by the county, it said.