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Community Corner

T-Mobile Seeks Approval for Another Cell Phone Tower

The provider wants to build a monopole on a public right of way on Adamor Road, in addition to the two sought for Adamsville Road, in an effort to increase its coverage area.

In the midst of its stalled efforts to erect two towers near a residential area, cell phone carrier T-Mobile is pushing for a 35-foot monopole on Adamor Road in Calabasas.

T-Mobile trails Verizon, Sprint, Cingular and AT&T in terms of the number of cell phone towers it operates in the city. Sprint has at least nine; Cingular has eight; Verizon has at least seven, with two additional towers approved; and AT&T has seven, with one additional tower approved.

T-Mobile stands to increase its coverage area if the city signs off on the company's plans.

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"Basically, over 60 percent of mobile calls originate from home," said Clark Harris, T-Mobile development manager. "In order for us to serve our customers at home–as well as everywhere else–we need to have more towers."  

The city has never formally rejected a cell tower proposal, though some requests have languished over time, said associate planner Michael Klein.

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In July the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District  postponed a decision on a pair of proposed T-Mobile cell phone towers on Adamsville Road after nearby residents raised concerns over potential Brown Act violations in the decision-making process.

The Adamor project calls for a 35-foot tall monopole and underground equipment vault, which would be located in a public right of way at 26202 Adamor Road.

The pole, which would house antennas, would be the fourth of its kind in the city, Klein said. Usually cell tower poles are mounted on existing utility poles, but there are none to be used in the proposed area, he said.

The pole would measure 18 inches in diameter up to where the antennas begin, where it would widen to 24 inches.

The plan was approved by the city's Architecture Review Panel at a special meeting Friday. Next, the proposal will be discussed at a yet-to-be scheduled hearing before the community development director.

The architecture panel applauded T-Mobile for its plan to bury part of the system below ground, said Geoffrey Starns, senior city planner.

"We much prefer when it's underground [so] we don't have equipment everywhere," he said.

One of the concerns as the project moves forward in the approval process is its proposed location, Starns said. Because the tower would be within the public right of way, the city would have less control over the appearance of the tower than if it were located on private property under state law.

"The city is much more limited with what it can and can't do," Starns said.

In private locations, the city has much broader discretion in terms of land use and aesthetics, whereas under state law, utility companies have the right to use public right of ways. It's not completely clear yet how enforceable cities' aesthetic guidelines are, Klein said.

"Essentially, we have [aesthetic] guidelines and if they don't meet those, they have to go through a more stringent approval process, so there's an incentive to follow the guidelines," Klein said. "It's definitely challengeable under state law and cities have been challenged in court."

Calabasas has not been to court over this issue.

Some city residents have raised concerns over the potential health risks associated with cell phone towers.

"Always the primary concern is radio frequency emissions," Klein said.

Some studies link cell tower emissions to a myriad of health issues, but the evidence for harmful biological effects is ambiguous when the levels of exposure to radio frequency are low, according to Federal Communications Commission literature.

Measurements made near typical cellular installations such as the proposed monopole have shown that ground-level power densities are much less than the FCC's limits for safe exposure, T-Mobile's Harris said.

"If the FCC is serious enough to place radio frequency emission restrictions, which take precedence over state and local laws, you can bet they've done the safety research," Harris said. "I don't want to make it sound like cell providers are hiding behind the FCC, because when you look at the research, it really is a safe technology."

While the decision to grant T-Mobile a permit to build two cell phone towers on 3370 Adamsville Rd. was on the agenda for Thursday the Planning Commission will postpone its consideration as they continue their investigation.

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