Antenna hidden in church spire faces criticism Antenna hidden in church spire faces criticism (February 13, 2004)

Citizens' group wants new cell phone tower taken down

By Grace Rauh

Tom Trembois is one of a number of Los Altos residents upset with the city of Mountain View for allowing the installation of a new antenna tower.

In a phone interview last week -- when Trembois' cell phone lost reception twice -- he explained his opposition. The tower, which was recently placed inside the church steeple of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church on Springer Road in Mountain View, was installed by Cingular Wireless and is meant to improve local phone reception for Cingular customers.

And as for Trembois?

"We would like to have this removed," he said.

Trembois, who lives near the new tower in Los Altos, is a member of the newly-formed Citizens for Antenna Free Neighborhoods group and a cell phone user, although he's thinking of discontinuing his service, he said.

Comprised of Mountain View and Los Altos residents, the group is protesting the new antenna tower and pointing fingers at the city of Mountain View for not informing Los Altos residents about the antenna's installation. The group fears the antenna could have harmful health effects on people who live or work near the site.

Trembois noted that because individual cell phone companies install their antennas in a piece-meal fashion, multiple antennas could overlap in an area and emit higher levels of radiation. According to Trembois, there is also evidence that some small animals can "potentially be hurt or affected" by antenna radiation, although that doesn't necessarily mean humans are at risk, he said. It's the uncertainty that worries him most.

"We're not sure exactly who has exposure (from) this at this point," Trembois said.

Last July, the city notified all Mountain View households within 300 feet of the church steeple about the incoming antenna. However, because the church is close to the city border, several Los Altos residents also live within 300 feet of the antenna. The city did not send Los Altos residents any notifications, said Mountain View City Attorney Michael Martello.

"The GIS system, which I guess they relied on to provide the notices, did not provide Los Altos addresses," Martello said.

City officials are "actively working" to include addresses from neighboring cities in the computerized information system, "to ensure that that doesn't happen again," said Al Savay, a senior deputy zoning administrator for the city.

But according to Savay, even if Los Altos residents had been told about the antenna last summer, they would not have been able to stop the construction by pointing to potential health risks.

The Telecommunications Act of 1996 prohibits local governments from blocking cell phone antenna installations deemed safe by the Federal Communications Commission, as a health or safety precaution, Savay said. Because Cingular's antenna bore the requisite FCC approval, the city could only have blocked the project if it was considered unsightly. And there was only a slim chance that would happen.

"Over the last six or seven years, they've become more sophisticated in terms of how to hide these antennas," Savay said of the cellular phone companies. "They've been able to hide these things to the point where they can usually meet the aesthetic criteria of just about any city."

Cingular negotiated a 30-year lease with the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. Pastor Curtis Church would not disclose how much money the church stands to gain from the antenna.

"That's in the contract, and we're not making that public," he said. The church is planning to use the extra income for special projects like landscaping, according to the pastor.

After the antenna went up, Cingular hired an electrical engineer to take radiation readings around the church property's boundaries. The highest reading taken was one percent of the FCC's acceptable limit for a human to incur, Church said.

"It doesn't seem to be really based on good science," the pastor said of the residents' concern.

Savay, who reviews antenna applications from cellular phone companies for the city, said within the last three years, the city has approved 15 cellular antennas.

This is the first time Savay has seen any opposition to a cellular antenna in Mountain View, but the local residents are not the first to cry out. Across the bay in Berkeley, two citizens' groups are to trying to prevent Sprint PCI Wireless Communications from installing a new cellular phone antenna, according to a report by the Contra Costa Times.

Mountain View officials sent out a second round of notices to all residents who live within 300 feet of the antenna -- including those in Los Altos, to announce a neighborhood meeting held in late January. Attendees included the Citizens for Antenna Free Neighborhoods group, a UC Davis professor from the department of radiology and representatives from Cingular Wireless and the Seventh-day Adventist Church, Savay said.

Given constraints posed by the 1996 act, the city asked Project Sentinel, a nonprofit mediation group, to meet with the church pastor and citizens' group, but now the Antenna Free Neighborhoods organization has decided to approach the pastor themselves.

Church said he is willing to speak to residents about their concerns, but he will only agree to take down the antenna if the group can produce some concrete scientific evidence that points to real health risks. He hasn't seen anything to sway his decision so far, he added, but that doesn't mean he won't agree to another type of compromise.

"We're happy to do constant monitoring of radiation to make sure that it doesn't start becoming a problem and make that testing available to the neighbors," he said.

It is uncertain whether Trembois and other residents will accept such an offer.

"I wouldn't say that anybody is off the hook right now," Trembois said.

E-mail Grace Rauh at grauh@mv-voice.com

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