GILROY
– A battle over radiation-emitting towers – which has quashed
two companies’ plans to build such structures and led to a
controversial citywide petition drive – has expanded to include a
new location in Gilroy.
GILROY – A battle over radiation-emitting towers – which has quashed two companies’ plans to build such structures and led to a controversial citywide petition drive – has expanded to include a new location in Gilroy.
Echoing oft-repeated concerns about health, homeland security and property values in the recent debate over transmission towers here, residents of the affluent Country Estates neighborhood near Gilroy Golf Course are asking the city to halt construction of a new AT+T cellular telephone transmission tower at a city water tank site near their homes.
Residents are also upset they weren’t notified when the 30-foot AT+T tower – slated for a site near Reservoir D – was initially approved by city officials this summer on an “in-house” basis without formal public hearings, said Ron Gong, a certified public accountant whose residence is adjacent to the tower site near Periwinkle Drive north of the golf course. In a recent letter to the city, Gong called for a review and changes to the approval methodology, which he called “flawed.”
“The protection to our city’s water supply, impact to real estate prices and disclosure and long-term unknown health hazards should have been fully quantified and memorialized before any long-term contract was executed,” Gong wrote.
Earlier this year, the city’s Planning Commission rejected a 75-foot Zinc Technologies wireless internet transmission tower proposed at another city water tank site in the Northwest Quad after residents protested, citing similar concerns.
The Gilroy Unified School District has also scrapped plans to allow Cingular Wireless to build cell towers near Luigi Aprea school. The towers were to be housed inside flagpoles.
And according to Gong, several Country Estates residents are among the 600-plus residents that have now signed a petition requesting a potential ordinance that would ban radiation-emitting towers and transmitter sites within 2,500 feet of residences, schools and water tanks.
Gong said he was told by city planners that building permits for the 30-foot tower were approved by city officials last summer – and without Planning Commission review – because the structures’ proposed height fell under a 45-foot noticing trigger.
However, actual construction at the site was delayed and residents noticed the activity at the tower just recently, Gong said. City Manager Jay Baksa and Planning Division Manager Bill Faus were unavailable for comment before press time. But city officials have said in the past that their scope of power to approve or deny such towers on health grounds is limited by federal law and regulations.
City attorneys have said the city can consider height, aesthetics and location when considering the siting of towers – but can’t propose changes in signal strength or consider health effects if transmissions meet federal guidelines.
Gong said the presence of the tower could hurt neighborhood residents’ resale attempts and could affect property values much more than the amount of revenue the city will receive from leasing the site for the tower. Residents were told the lease would be about $1,300 to $1,400 per month.
He also stressed homeland security concerns, noting the gated tank site was open and being accessed by unmarked vehicles several times over the course of a week’s time.
Gong said health concerns from tower signals are a concern, too. Like others who have complained of the prior tower or signed the petition, residents feel the safety of the signals emitted from the towers is uncertain.
The permanent, static towers differ from personal use of radiation-emitting devices such as cell phones or computer monitors, Gong said, because those devices are used by choice – and not constant, fixed sources of energy such as towers.
“You can choose to turn it off,” he said of a cell phone. “I can’t turn this (tower) off.”
Construction of the new 30-foot tower should also be halted at least until the city can debate and come to a decision about a citywide ordinance, he said.
