GILROY
– It’s not exactly the Hatfields and McCoys or a presidential
debate, but neighbor will face neighbor – sort of – on the
controversial issue of wireless transmission towers next week.
GILROY – It’s not exactly the Hatfields and McCoys or a presidential debate, but neighbor will face neighbor – sort of – on the controversial issue of wireless transmission towers next week.
Country Estates resident Ron Gong – who is concerned about the presence of transmission towers behind his home and the way the city approved them – has been scheduled to speak at a special City Council workshop Monday on wireless transmission facilities.
But so has Gong’s neighbor Mark Lyons, a retired General Electric engineer who says he has no problems with the towers there.
Although both men are slated as sideshows on the schedule, their contrasting presence will provide an interesting tone to the first public meeting held specifically to discuss the long-controversial tower issue in Gilroy, which began with an Internet company’s proposal for a Northwest Quad structure and snowballed to include a 1,000-signature citywide petition drive and several more individual controversies over specific tower sites.
The brunt of Monday’s schedule – one hour – has been devoted to a presentation for Council by new city Community Development Director Wendy Rooney.
Rooney, who dealt with the wireless issue in Steamboat Springs where she worked before coming to Gilroy, is expected to provide an overview of wireless laws and regulations and outline what a local wireless ordinance could include – if Council decides it’s interested – and what it can’t.
“I consider it a foundational meeting,” said City Manager Jay Baksa. “It will be like a normal workshop.”
If the council wants to proceed, city staff will then start putting “muscle to the bones,” Baksa said.
Health issues won’t be discussed in-depth Monday – at least not by city officials.
General themes among tower detractors have included a distrust of regulatory standards and concerns there hasn’t been enough research to demonstrate their long-term safety. Other objections have also included aesthetics, air-safety and concerns about the degree of access crews will be afforded to the large municipal water tanks.
But city officials say they’re powerless to act on health concerns. City attorneys have said communications safety and health levels and standards are largely set by federal laws and the Federal Communications Commission, and the city’s authority relatively limited to site-placement issues such as aesthetics.
“We’ll touch on it, but not much because it’s out of our realm,” Baksa said.
Lyons has been given 15 minutes for his presentation, as have Gong and tower activist Christopher Cote.
Thursday, Gong said officials have apparently assumed he would want to speak at the hearing and does not know what to expect, but will outline the concerns he’s already expressed.
“Apparently, I’m on the agenda,” he said. “I’ll just continue to say what I believe in.
“I’m going to talk about the same things – homeland security, protection of water supply … residential is residential and commercial is commercial.
“We don’t know about the long-time health effects, and it’s too new, so let’s err on the side of conservatism.”
But Gong said the mere fact that the meeting is being held at all suggests the city at least needs to stage a moratorium on the towers until further decisions are made.
“If you need to be educated about the issues surrounding antennas, you’re building an airplane when you’re flying it,” he said.
Lyons, a retired engineer who spent 43 years in General Electric’s nuclear energy division, said he requested to speak at the original forum to share his knowledge of the technology and explain differences between the kind of radiation associated with wireless antennas and other kinds the public may have in their minds.
“The facts don’t justify the “brouhaha” that’s been created over this,” he said.
The tower controversy first sprung up in October around a wireless Internet transmission tower proposed for a city water tank site near Welburn Avenue and Mantelli Drive.
After hearing from several angry residents concerned about health and aesthetic issues, the city’s Planning Commission voted unanimously to reject the plan by San Francisco-based Zinc Technologies.
But Cote, who helped lead opposition against the Zinc tower, kept the issue alive through a petition drive that seeks a new city law prohibiting radiation-emitting transmitters and towers within a 2,500-foot radius of homes, schools and water supplies.
Cote spoke at several City Council meetings in recent months urging the city to consider the ordinance. More recently, he has been supplanted at the city level by Gong and other Country Estates residents who are concerned about two smaller AT&T towers at a city water tank site above their homes.
City officials had previously considered helping to organize a forum focusing on the health concerns around the towers, where Federal Communications Commission officials and others could explain and exchange facts on the emotional issue.
But Council scrapped the idea at their annual retreat earlier this month after FCC officials apparently balked at the concept and several Councilmembers noted that health concerns are not in their authority and that such a discussion would be likely to elevate conflict, rather than change anyone’s minds.
Instead, they decided to pursue a public discussion to review and consider their other options – that aren’t tied to the health concerns – on citing the devices, including a possible citywide master plan.
The workshop is slated to begin at roughly 7:30 p.m., after the Council concludes business from its regular agenda. That portion of the meeting begins at 6 p.m.
