Subject: [NEXTEL-1] California Neighborhoods Angry at Antenna Sites

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 11 Aug 2003 15:18:37 -0400

California Neighborhoods Angry at Antenna Sites

Some California neighborhoods are down right angry at the booming installation of
cell phone towers. Residents are concerned with the unsightly display of the
towers, which they believe depress property values, interfere with their
television reception and pose health risks. The new installations come as cellular
providers further concentrate on plugging gaps in their coverage areas, resulting
in new towers in residential areas. The Cellular Telecommunications & Internet
Association (CTIA) says there are an estimated 16 million cell phone users in
California, and about 140,000 cell phone antennas.

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Cell phone antennas raise profile, anger in neighborhoods
Article Published: Sunday, August 10, 2003 - 8:47:00 PM PST

By James Nash

With freeways and major streets already lined by cellular telephone antennas,
wireless companies are increasingly plugging holes in coverage by installing
antennas in residential areas despite community objections.

Most of Los Angeles already is blanketed with cell towers, and applications for
new towers have slowed from three or four a week five years ago to about two a
month now, said Hadar Plafkin, a supervising city planner.  But new cell towers
still can be lightning rods for controversy.

In Mission Hills, a group of residents recently lost a fight to prevent a 35-foot
cellular antenna from being erected at a church on Devonshire Street. The
residents had complained that the tower would be unsightly, depress property
values, interfere with their television reception and possibly cause health risks
due to radio frequencies.

The tower went up around the beginning of July, said Carolyne Edwards, one of the
residents who protested it.
Edwards, who does not have a cell phone, said antennas belong in commercial areas
and along freeways, not in residential neighborhoods such as hers, where there are
children and schools.  "There are other areas where you can put a cell phone tower
where people do not live,' she said. "They didn't put it in their back yard. They
put it in our back yard.'
The tower was installed by AT&T Wireless. John Mendez, a spokesman for the
company, said the estimated 148 million Americans who use cell phones expect
service whether they are at home, at work or on the road. Cellular providers are
concentrating on plugging gaps in their coverage areas, which often means new
towers in residential areas, he said.
"I wish we didn't have to build,' Mendez said. "Consumers are driving this huge
demand. We're just responding to this demand that's becoming as common as
television.'

The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, the trade group for
cellular companies, estimated that there were 16 million cell phone users in
California, although it did not have numbers for Los Angeles. There are about
140,000 cell phone antennas in California, association spokesman Travis Larson
said.

As cell phone users disconnect their wire lines in favor of totally wireless
communication, cellular providers are erecting antennas deeper into residential
areas, Larson said.  Advocates for the cellular phone industry say there's no
evidence of any health consequences from antennas. And the radio frequencies of
cellular towers differ enough from commercial radio and television as to not cause
interference, Mendez said.  Other than the benefits of uninterrupted cell phone
conversations, wall-to-wall antenna coverage enhances public safety by ensuring
that residents and emergency workers can communicate by cellular phone in the
field, Mendez said.

The Mission Hills cell phone tower, which is disguised as a pine tree, hasn't
caused any reception problems so far, Edwards said. But some residents remain
upset about the tower and what they see as their powerlessness to stop it. Plafkin
and city planner Nicholas Hendricks said the Federal Telecommunications Act of
1996 prevents cities from prohibiting or restricting cellular phone antennas based
on health concerns related to radio transmission. In residential areas, city
planners may require cellular companies to limit the towers' height or disguise
them, Hendricks said. In commercial areas, companies can erect towers without
going through an environmental review process.

City planners could not provide figures on the number of cellular towers in Los
Angeles or how many are in areas zoned for residential uses.  "Most of what we can
do with cell phone towers is taken out of our hands by the (federal government),'
Plafkin said. "The only thing we're really allowed to ask (companies) to do is to
disguise to make (towers) not stick out like a sore thumb.'

-- James Nash can be reached at (818) 713-3722 or by e-mail at
[email-masked].

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~22097~1563598,00.html

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From: "Bulldog" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 12 Aug 2003 17:12:57 -0000

Let's remove power lines and telephone lines too.  There are far 
more of those.  Why are they not deemed unsightly?

> California, and about 140,000 cell phone antennas.
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> james.nash@d...
http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/Stories/0,1413,206~22097~1563598,00.h
tml