Victory for the Ramapos: Bergen County Rejects Controversial 500-Foot Cell Tower
the staff of the Ridgewood blog
Mahwah NJ, in a major win for environmentalists and North Jersey hikers, Bergen County officials have officially pulled the plug on a proposed 500-foot telecommunications tower within the Ramapo Valley County Reservation.
The decision, announced on January 27, 2026, ends months of heated debate over the future of the 398,000-acre Highlands Preservation Area and the “industrialization” of public parkland.
Why the County Said “No”
The proposal, which first surfaced in April 2025, was presented as a solution to “dead zones” in the reservation that posed safety risks to lost or injured hikers. However, after a thorough review, the Bergen County Board of Commissioners determined the project was not in the public interest.
Key reasons for the rejection included:
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Environmental Impact: The site sits in a strictly regulated zone that provides drinking water for half of New Jersey.
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Preservation of Character: A 50-story structure would have permanently scarred the skyline of the Ramapo Mountains.
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Regulatory Complexity: The project faced a gauntlet of approvals from the Highlands Commission and fierce local opposition.
The “Wall Street” Controversy
The battle wasn’t just about cell service. Activists, led by Jeff Tittel and the newly formed group SOAR (Save Our Amazing Ramapos), argued the tower’s true purpose was to facilitate high-frequency trading for Wall Street firms.
By using microwave technology to transmit data between the New York Stock Exchange data center in Mahwah and other financial hubs, the tower would have prioritized corporate profits over public parkland.
“This was a David vs. Goliath battle—local residents and hikers versus a powerful Wall Street firm,” said Tittel. “The Ramapo Mountains won.”
What This Means for Mahwah and Ramsey
While the 500-foot county tower is dead, a separate legal battle continues nearby. Mahwah has filed a complaint against the Borough of Ramsey over a proposed 180-foot tower near MacArthur Boulevard. Mahwah officials claim the tower is being moved forward without proper local permits, further highlighting the region’s tension between tech infrastructure and local zoning.
The Commitment to Open Space
Bergen County Executive Jim Tedesco reaffirmed the county’s commitment to stewardship, noting that since 2015, the county has invested over $148 million in open space projects. For now, the “treasured reservation” will remain free of industrial-scale development.
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as soon as satellite phone service prices come down and towers will be unnecessary for portable phones, these people will have to find something else to bitch about
Federal law governing the construction of cell towers in the United States is the Telecommunications Act of 1996 (TCA), especially Section 332(c)(7), which sets limits on how state and local governments regulate tower placement. The county’s position in court would be very weak.
It wasn’t a tower of being constructed by a cellular telephone company. It was a tower that was being built by the New York Stock Exchange to provide high-speed data service to their backup facility in Mahwah.
The visual of a single tall tower in parkland was the real issue. Bottom line, despite all the noise.
YET, we are all impacted daily as we walk and drive past literally thousands of UGLY tall pine telephone poles that litter nearly every street in the county, with their thousands of miles of UGLY drooping wires. Yet people whine about 1 tall tower that may help service the New York Stock Exchange (which invests all of our retirement 401K’s)? Amazing.