T-Mobile Towers Q & A: Jeff Reinhardt

On Tuesday evening, the board of directors of the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District will take up a lease that could pave the way for T-Mobile to construct a pair of cell phone towers on its property.

Last month, the board approved the lease, but is now reconsidering its decision following dissenting comments from those living nearby the proposed project site.

On Monday, Patch posted an

Jeff Reinhardt, public affairs and communications manager for the LVMWD, recently spoke with Patch and talked about Tuesday night's meeting and cleared up how the board is not the final stop for the proposed T-Mobile Project.

Calabasas Patch: So what kind of decision is the board going to make on Tuesday?

Reinhardt: I think their options would be to either go ahead with the lease, choose not to go ahead the lease, or to keep the item open. Let me add, even if the lease is approved between T-Mobile and the LVMWD, it does not mean that construction of the process would automatically begin. One of the first clauses in that lease states it is contingent upon gaining the approval of the city of Calabasas. This would be done through the city of Calabasas Planning Commission. … When there is a lease on a cell site, the controlling agency really is the local jurisdiction, in this case the local city.

Patch: Why is the board now interested in soliciting input from the public? Wasn't there a public hearing on this issue when the board initially took up this item?

Reinhardt: It was an agendized item. The approval of a lease doesn't require a public hearing, which is a different process requiring a lot more formal steps. But in an open meeting, as rules and laws apply, a person from the public may come in and address any item on the agenda.

Patch: So after the board approved the lease, they decided to bring back the item following input from concerned residents. Has anything like that happened before in the LVMWD?

Reinhardt: Not to my recollection.

Patch: Would this be the first such facility to be built on LVMWD property?

Reinhardt: No.

Patch: How many are there?

Reinhardt: I don't have a precise number, but I'd be confident in saying there's several.

Patch: Has concern from local residents risen with regard to those other cell phone facilities?

Reinhardt: There were some concerns expressed in the form of questions to the Westlake Village City Council about a similar project, but the Westlake City Council did approve the project. This was approximately a month or two ago. It was relatively recent.

Patch: Why do some cell phone facilities end up being build near water tanks?

Reinhardt: Water tanks tend to be at higher elevations and advantageous also for having these radio installations. The higher they are the more ground they cover.

Patch: So could a water tank visually block such a facility?

Reinhardt: It can have that effect, yes, if it's properly installed, yes. Probably, in a well-designed installation, you would be hard pressed to identify that there's a radio installation there.

Patch: How much revenue would this T-Mobile project generate for the LVMWD?

Reinhardt: The monthly rental fee, if the project were approved in its present form, would be approx 1800 a month. That money is general revenue to the water district. It would help to contain the day-to-day costs of district operations, which has the ultimate benefit to the rate payers at large.

Patch: Some residents have said there are better locations for this project. Has the water district looked into any other potential sites?

Reinhardt: It really wouldn't be up to us to determine what the best location is, that would be T-Mobile's call as to what site works for them. We're in the water business, we're not in the mobile phone business. That would be [T-Mobile's] expertise, that would have to determine what sites work for them and which do not.

Patch: But obviously if T-Mobile wanted to do an installation on the front steps of your office you would say no, right?

Reinhardt: Well of course, we would examine any proposal for leasing district facilities. We get many inquiries throughout the course of a year; it isn't just, for example, for cell phone companies. We sometimes get requests from filming companies to use our facilities. We are able to sometimes accommodate them, but more often than not, we say no.

Cbeck back tomorrow for our coverage of Tuesday night's LVMWD meeting.