Cellphone Facility OK'd for Summit at Calabasas

The Calabasas Planning Commission on Thursday approved plans for the installation of a new telecommunications facility on the roof of the Summit at Calabasas.

The new equipment is expected to provide better coverage to the businesses and residential neighborhoods, such as Saratoga Hills, along the 101 Freeway, according to staff reports.

The purpose of the proposed site is to offload network traffic from an existing wireless facility located on Las Virgenes Road, which is currently overloaded, resulting in a lot of “dropped calls,” especially during the peak hours of cellphone usage, staff reports read.

“We have a community of 200 homes that is accessed only by a bridge across the freeway,” said Commissioner David Brown. “In the event of an emergency affecting the community, an accident on the bridge or the freeway, or an earthquake or a disaster that affects landline phones, people might need to rely on their cellphones for service, and so it’s particularly important to have good service here.”

The facility, to include 11 panel antennas and four equipment cabinets, is to be built according to the "stealth" design, and will be screened from public view.

For instance, the facility will have subdued colors and non-reflective materials in order to blend in with the surroundings, and all accessory equipment associated with the operation of the facility will be located within a building or an underground vault, in accordance with zoning plans, staff reports stated.

The technical aspects of the project were reviewed by the city’s radio frequency consultant, Jonathan Kramer, who said that with proper conditions, the project would comply with FCC radio frequency emission regulations.

In addition, the application was reviewed and recommended for approval by the city’s Architectural Review Panel in February.

“The project complies with scenic corridor guidelines: It incorporates design measures to ensure maximum compatibility with the scenic corridor, and the project design includes adequate landscape features to beautify the corridor,” said Associate Planner Michael Klein.

His report to the commission determined that the project had fulfilled all requirements for a conditional use permit. 

Commissioner Rick Shumacher added two stipulations for approval: no construction vehicles, or construction crew vehicles be allowed to park on-street, and that the city be notified in writing at least 10 days prior to the facility operator abandoning the site.

Both these recommendations were approved by the commission.

No one from the community spoke for or against the proposed project during the public comment period.