The planned construction of cellular phone towers in La Jolla and Point Loma has resurrected debate about where mobile phone service companies should erect antennae and poles, an issue that continues to polarize neighbors.
While some oppose these large poles, others ” including residents belonging to the Mount La Jolla Association ” say they would like a tower in their area because they get bad reception on their mobile phones.
The issue has surfaced before in La Jolla, where both completed and proposed T-Mobile antennae have been on the agenda of the La Jolla Community Planning Association for more than a year, said LJCPA Chair Tim Golba.
He said residents have taken issue with two proposed installations, one on Soledad Avenue and one on La Jolla Rancho Road. He said the projects would be in the middle of well-established residential communities.
“With a project like this, nobody is really concerned until it happens to them,” he said.
At a community planning group meeting on July 5, about 60 residents and supporters attended specifically to protest the project.
Although some residents were concerned about potential health risks, the issue appears to be more about quality of life, Golba said, adding that most residents were concerned that one day they might wake up to construction companies building 30-foot-high poles in the public right-of-way in front of their homes. Large underground vaults beneath the towers would also have to be installed for the supporting equipment.
Point Loma resident Anne Beste opposes the scheduled installation of three T-Mobile antennae on existing light poles at Point Loma Nazarene University on Lomaland Drive. The project includes a 190-square-foot enclosure for supporting equipment. Nextel antennae already exist on the poles.
Beste said she is uncertain about claims regarding the long-term health effects of exposure to radio frequency (RF) emissions, saying instead that her greatest concern is the closeness of the proposed transmitters to Sunset View Elementary.
According to an appeal she filed against the project, the proximity to the school wasn’t taken into consideration during the original permit process in January 2006. The appeal cites other reasons, including violations of the San Diego municipal code.
“We would like them to compromise and reposition [the antennae] and that would be great, but there just doesn’t seem to be any inclination there,” she said.
Beste lives near the entrance to the university and said she will have two children attending the elementary school next year.
But while some residents oppose the projects because of quality-of-life concerns and potential health effects, other residents in La Jolla want an antenna in their neighborhood.
Roger Reeve, general manager of the Mount La Jolla Association, said the Mount La Jolla community has been trying for about three years to get a tower there. He said he isn’t concerned about the possible health effects from a tower and that the issue hasn’t been raised during community meetings.
Frustrated residents have repeatedly tried to get a tower in an area where a large television antenna once stood. Their calls have gone almost completely ignored by the cellular phone companies, according to Micki Farrell, a Mount La Jolla Association member. According to Farrell, one company would look at the possibility.
Farrell said the recent opposition to antennae towers in other communities is not reflective of her views or her situation.
“Here they go trying to put a tower where people don’t want them and here we are trying to get one,” Farrell said.
She said the Mount La Jolla community is composed of about 234 homes with about 400 residents who receive terrible cellular service because of the surrounding hills and canyons.
Farrell said it seems like the big companies are ignoring the concerns of communities.
Representatives from T-Mobile said there are programs going into place in San Diego that the residents can use to address community concerns.
“T-Mobile believes that we have not a legal obligation but a community obligation to address those questions to the best of our abilities,” said Laura Altchful, director of national external affairs.
Altchful said T-Mobile is concerned about issues being raised by various communities, whether those concerns are in favor of or against the installation of cell phone towers.
However, it may be an uphill struggle for those opposing such projects in their area. T-Mobile receives an average of 56 complaints a month from the Point Loma area alone, according to Luke Lucas, manager of regional development. Those complaints, Lucas said, are either because of dropped calls or because of lack of service.
He said the company works with the city and the law to provide adequate service for its customers. There are currently eight T-Mobile antennae in Point Loma and four more are planned, he said.
As communities struggle to regulate the construction of antennae in their neighborhood, their options appear limited. The federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 precludes local government from regulating placement on the basis of environmental effects, including health risks, so long as the antennae conform to FCC guidelines.
This could leave the concerned parents of Sunset View Elementary with little recourse if their main concern is the effect of the RF emissions on their children’s health.
However, according to the Web site for the World Health Organization, there is “little evidence for adverse health effects that can be attributed to mobile phone base stations.”
Jerrold Bushberg, the environmental consultant who studied the proposed project for Point Loma Nazarene University, presented his findings to the Peninsula Community Planning Board in October 2006 during one of the first hearings for the project.
“The combination of [the antennae] pointing at the horizon, and the fact that radio frequency energy decreases in intensity with distance, mean that exposures for people around most of these sites is usually very, very low,” Bushberg said during a July 17 telephone interview.
Bushberg said people often hear the term “radiation” and become concerned. He said that at the emission levels the antennae would operate there wouldn’t be any anticipated health effects.
The city’s Planning Commission is scheduled to hear the T-Mobile/Point Loma Nazarene project on Thursday, Aug. 30.
To contact the La Jolla Community Planning Association, call (858) 456-7900 or visit www.ljcpa.org.
For information about the San Diego Planning Commission, call (619) 321-3208, or e-mail to [email protected].