Alternative sites considered for Agoura Hills cellular tower

Agoura Hills City Council members will hire an independent consultant to determine whether the public right-of-way on Thousand Oaks Boulevard will make a better location for the proposed cell antenna that was planned for Lindero Canyon Middle School.

Council members heard presentations by T-Mobile representatives and opponents to the project on Sept. 23, and continued the public hearing to Oct. 28.

Representatives from OmniPoint Communications, the parent company of T-Mobile, and SurePoint, a network infrastructure consulting firm, submitted a report to the council outlining alternative sites for the unmanned wireless facility.

SurePoint representative Robert Wheaton said T-Mobile had a “significant gap in coverage” in the area. He said the company had reduced its initial plan of three antennas to one.

Opponents have told the City Council that T-Mobile has exaggerated its need for additional coverage.

Opponents of the Lindero cell tower say children are vulnerable to the health risks posed by radiofrequency (RF) emissions from the antennas and that the Telecommunication Act of 1996 could be revised in Feb., 2010, changing the balance of power from cell companies back to cities.

By law, city councils can only consider the location and aesthetics of cell tower placement, not whether they are harmful to children.

The Federal Communications Commission has deemed that the small amount of RF waves emitted by cell antennas do not pose a health risk to students.

The Las Virgenes Unified School District, a separate government agency, has already contracted with T-Mobile to place the antenna at the school. The district has four cell towers at other schools.

Of the eight alternative sites discussed at the meeting, only one area—a city right-of-way on Thousand Oaks Boulevard— was deemed a viable alternative by the company. Wheaton said that other sites were not acceptable because either they did not meet the company’s coverage goals or the city’s zoning laws were prohibitive.

A water tank site at Woodglen and Ridgebrook drives in Agoura Hills was considered as an alternative location, but the placement is not allowable under current zoning laws, Wheaton said.

Other areas that were reviewed, but nixed by T-Mobile because of city zoning were the Agoura Hills Recreation Center at St. Paul Luthern Church, Lindero County Club and the north and south sides of Thousand Oaks Boulevard at Lindero Canyon in Westlake Village.

Residents still opposed

Agoura Hills resident Rina Baraz Nehdar, representing a group of citizens opposed to the placement of a cell tower at the school, accused T-Mobile of taking advantage of the “anemic school budget and a zoning loophole” to “worm their way into a place where they should not be.”

Deborah Lopez, a resident of Agoura Hills, is also opposed to the antenna at the school.

She said St. Paul Lutheran Church “would die to have that income.”

Nehdar questioned whether T-Mobile has proved they have a significant gap in coverage and whether the company had “chosen the least intrusive (location) for the community.”

Nehdar also said the growing awareness about the dangers of RF emissions led the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on June 2 to draft a resolution urging the federal government to allow local municipalities to use health and environment factors as criteria for denying cell towers near homes or schools.

Agoura Hills resident and cancer nurse Mary Ann Rush said she didn’t believe there were health hazards associated with an antenna the “size of a knitting needle.”

Decision postponed

Since T-Mobile had already submitted a study indicating the gaps in its coverage, it is now up to the city to prove why it believes the cell phone company is in the wrong, Agoura Hills Attorney Craig Steele said.

Council members agreed to hire an independent consultant to review T-Mobile’s information.

The City Council’s Dan Kuperberg would like to see how the federal government rules on the revised Telecommunication Act before making a decision about the antenna at Lindero.

“We would have a lack of vision . . . if we passed a law on Monday knowing the law is going to change on Tuesday,” Kuperberg said. “The likelihood is that the entire landscape is going to change.”

But Steele said T-Mobile’s application would not be affected by a change in the FCC law.