Communities Grapple With Static Over Cell Antennas

They are tall, dark and ugly--but absolutely necessary in the modern world of telecommunication.

The growing demand for cellular phone antennas--often built on scenic hillsides--has several Ventura County communities wrestling with how to accommodate high technology while preserving the region’s natural beauty.

Simi Valley has already passed a law to cut down on visual pollution caused by the stark antennas. Thousand Oaks is poised to follow, with a proposal under consideration Monday night.

Ojai officials this past winter shot down a plan to build a cellular antenna site near the city’s downtown. And in the seaside community of Faria Beach, residents are locked in a fight to keep new antennas out, prompting county officials to consider new guidelines for unincorporated areas.

“I feel like Copernicus, trying to inform the county powers that the world does not revolve around cellular phone companies,” said Faria Beach resident Bill Stratton, who has blocked the addition of new towers in his community by appealing to the California Coastal Commission. “It’s the uglification of our [community] . . . plus the arrogance of the phone companies.”

For the last seven months, companies trying to build wireless transmission sites in Thousand Oaks have had to wait. City Council members in November put a moratorium on new cellular antennas, fearing an onslaught of eyesores along scenic ridges.

City planners have drafted a law that would impose a host of restrictions on wireless communications sites. It would force companies to paint antennas to match the environment, provide landscaping to hide them and prove to officials that a new site is needed for better service.

Thousand Oaks planning commissioners will discuss the proposed law Monday, and City Council members are scheduled to take up the issue next month.

“We don’t need to saturate the Conejo Valley with these things,” said Planning Commissioner Ronald Polanski. “You see them on the ridgelines, and they look like hell.

“Look at Rasnow Peak,” Polanski added, referring to a Newbury Park communications site. “To me, that’s an eyesore.” Ventura County planners are drafting similar guidelines, calling for paint and landscaping to disguise the antennas, as well as a photo simulation to show what the site would look like.

The guidelines, now under review, also state that new antennas should not be placed on hillsides if other sites are available.

“A lot of jurisdictions are saying we need to look at this a little closer,” said county planner Lisa Woodburn. “We want to make sure we have guidelines.”

Beyond the visual clutter, a key issue for some residents is the electromagnetic radiation such towers emit.

Under both the Thousand Oaks and county guidelines, companies would have to submit copies of documents proving they comply with federal standards on such radiation.

Thousand Oaks resident Nora Aidukas, who has protested a proposed wireless communications site near the Moorpark Freeway, argues that more studies need to be conducted on the radiation. In the meantime, the new sites should be kept as far away from neighborhoods and schools as possible, she said.

“We have this technology and we want it,” Aidukas said. “But studies take years and years. . . . We want the city to keep its eyes wide open. These things are going to be everywhere.”

*

Phone company officials say that county residents are bringing up the radiation issue even though the Federal Communications Commission has safety standards to regulate cellular antennas.

“With this particular issue, it’s a lack of information,” said Jon Morris, real estate manager for AT&T; in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. “I really think what has happened is the federal government and local governments have not educated people as to how safe this is.”

Despite the protests, local officials acknowledge that consumers seem to love their cellular phones. The combination of improving technology, telecommunications deregulation and consumer demand has caused Southern California cities to be flooded with new cellular antenna requests. Three such applications are pending in Thousand Oaks.

The issue became heated in March when a crowd of residents turned out at a Planning Commission meeting to oppose the proposed wireless communications site near the Moorpark Freeway. AT&T; and Pacific Bell wanted to put 16 antennas, each about 14 feet high, near Meadows Reservoir.

Even though the companies had filed their applications before the moratorium went into effect, commissioners said they did not want to let the project go forward while the city was writing the new law. The companies have appealed to the City Council.

Planning Commissioner Dave Anderson said he opposed the new site because it appeared that AT&T; was simply trying to beef up its infrastructure in Thousand Oaks in anticipation of adding more customers in the future. At present, he said, there is no need for new cellular antennas in the city.

“I have two cell phones myself,” Anderson said. “I never have problems with them in Thousand Oaks, except for a dead spot in the Lang Ranch area.”

Polanski said commissioners should come up with a list of sites around the city where antennas could be placed without marring landscapes.

“Where can we hide these things?” he asked. “How can we keep them off our ridgelines?”

But AT&T; representatives argue the proposed Thousand Oaks law has numerous problems and treats phone companies differently than other businesses.

*

The city’s request that phone companies prove they need to put in new antennas to upgrade service seems out of line, argues Santa Barbara attorney Steven A. Amerikaner in a letter to Thousand Oaks officials.

“For example, does the city customarily require Bank of America to justify its application for a new branch based on notions of ‘necessity’?” writes Amerikaner, who represents AT&T.; “Is Jack in the Box required to justify that a new restaurant is ‘necessary’ before it is approved?”

The fight against cellular antennas extends to the other end of the county, where Faria Beach residents have mounted a campaign against four panel antennas that Pacific Bell wants to put on a 35-foot pole near a local park.

Stratton has spent $2,000 hiring a lawyer to oppose the project. His appeal to the California Coastal Commission has stalled the project, which has already won approval from the county. Stratton is not convinced that radiation levels would be safe.

“The telephone people said, ‘Let there be cellular antennas,’ and the county just said, ‘Yea, thee,’ ” Stratton said. “A few communities are putting up a fight.”