“Cell tower stirs up Midcoast” |
| Posted: 17 Aug 2010 09:08 AM PDT By Lily Bixler [ lily@hmbreview.com ] Some El Granada residents are abuzz over a potential cell tower set to be installed adjacent to an existing Coastside County Water District water tower on the northwestern corner of San Clemente and Isabella roads. The cell tower would be designed to look like a pine tree to blend in with surrounding vegetation, but even dressed up like an evergreen, some neighbors aren't thrilled about what they say are potential health problems associated with increased radiation and an estimated drop in their home prices. "The (existing) water tank isn't an issue to anyone, but once you stick up a big pole with radio waves, it could be a problem," said Maggie Reynard, a 14-year El Granada resident whose home looks out over the proposed site. Reynard said cell companies often bunch cell towers on one site. "Pretty soon we'll have an antennae farm down there," she said.CCWD, the agency that owns the land, agreed to allow AT&T, in partnership with T-Mobile, to use the land for cell signals for a monthly rental fee. The price tag isn't set, but, as a point of comparison, CCWD charges Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile about $3,000 each per month to pull their signals from a tower in Miramar. Last year these funds accounted for roughly $100,000 of CCWD's $6 million annual revenue, according to CCWD General Manager David Dickson. AT&T submitted its permit for the tower at the end of June, and now the San Mateo County Planning Department is reviewing the application and awaits feedback from a variety of government agencies. Then the permit moves to public hearing where it will stand for a 10-day appeal window. Stevan Pasero, who has lived for 20 years in a home with a deck that would be level with the cell tower, says that the tower may obfuscate his ocean view. But he explains his real concern is the health issue of cell tower radiation. The health threat of cell radiation is also a pet project for San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who earlier this summer signed into law the first cell phone radiation law, despite significant opposition from the cell phone industry. The resolution urges the Federal Communications Commission to update the current standards imposed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This act allows local jurisdictions rights over placement and modification of cell towers but preempts them from regulating airwaves. Currently, the act prohibits local jurisdictions from setting zoning regulations based on the environmental effects of radio-frequency emissions if the facilities are up to FCC standards for regulating emissions. According to AT&T's broker for the project, radiation emission standards are not dealt with at the county level because the science is set and cell towers are safe. "We've ensured that our site will be under FCC threshold," said Matt Yerovich. "Combined with T-Mobile, our proposal would be at 3.5 percent of FCC threshold emission standard of power density." The maximum permissible exposure is 5 milliwatts per square centimeter. Pasero suggested the companies find a location higher up the hill and away from the homes, but Yerovich said the cell company evaluated various other locations, and there are no other water tank sites that could house the cell tower. The Midcoast Community Council plans to discuss the proposed cell tower in the coming weeks at its regular meeting. More information about the specifics of those meetings can be found at http://mcc.sanmateo.org/. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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