A controversial chimney is rare. But when what’s coming out of
it is not smoke, but possibly radiation, people pay attention.
A controversial chimney is rare. But when what’s coming out of it is not smoke, but possibly radiation, people pay attention.
Those people mostly include residents of Wheeler Manor Senior Housing center, 651 6th St., where various cell phone carriers have operated a wireless transmitter disguised as a 10-foot chimney for the past decade. Most seniors had no idea they even lived beneath the rooftop tower until a few months ago. Yet, the chimney has since become a lightning rod for the ongoing international debate concerning the safety of cell phones, cell phone towers and electromagnetic radiation. See the end of this story for a map of local cell towers.
The Planning Commission will help shape that debate Thursday when it considers T-Mobile’s application for the third time since November. The wireless carrier must obtain a special permit from the planning commission to continue operating its rooftop antennas, as required by Gilroy’s 2003 telecommunications ordinance. The ordinance bars antennas within residential zones unless the carrier needs the site to provide wireless services within the city, the equipment blends in with the neighborhood and no other feasible sites exist nearby.
But planning commissioners and residents have questioned the findings of an engineer T-Mobile hired to debunk fears of radiation and cancer, and last month the body directed staff to hire an independent investigator to vet that data and explore other possible sites for T-Mobile in nearby commercial and industrial areas. Assistant City Attorney Jolie Houston told commissioners Dec. 4 that T-Mobile had to complete its conditional permit paperwork “like a new applicant” – which means coming up with additional sites – but in a Nov. 21 letter to the city, T-Mobile representative Michael Baty wrote, “Certain submission criteria were understood as not germane to the review and not required by staff.”
Such allegedly irrelevant material includes the exploration of alternative sites, which Baty wrote, “doesn’t seem an appropriate submission criteria for an application to consider the continued use” of the tower. City Planner Laura McIntyre also told commissioners that staff “discouraged” T-Mobile co-locating with existing cell sites because of the carrier’s history and the importance of the Wheeler Center site to its network.
“New applicants would not be in T-mobile’s position … This operation has been there for 10 years, and (T-Mobile) has designed their network with that site as a main site,” McIntyre said. “Staff did not see any truly viable locations nearby.”
But Michael Van Zandt saw three
The attorney for Ronald Gong – an outspoken resident who helped craft the city’s telecommunication ordinance – presented a letter to commissioners during their Nov. 6 meeting. In it, Gong dismissed T-mobile’s radiation calculations at the senior housing as insufficient and he mentioned three sites T-Mobile could move to but had yet to explore at the time: the Milias Apartment building at Sixth and Monterey streets, a building at First and Hanna streets and the roof tower used by Gilroy’s emergency services at Sixth and Rosanna streets.
The downtown apartment building and the Hanna Street site sit in commercial zones – unlike the senior center’s high-density housing designation – and both already have MetroPCS towers. But Baty said co-locating with the competition – which the city’s ordinance encourages – is impossible because the sites cannot not physically support T-Mobile’s equipment. Plus, he said, moving would take nine months, poke a hole in T-Mobile’s current coverage cloud and possibly interfere with signals at the emergency tower.
“I liken this to going back to PG&E and saying, ‘We got it wrong running power lines there in the 1930s or ’20s,’ and some guy’s complaining now,” Baty said.
But skipping the alternative site step from the get-go has upset commissioners.
“We need an independent review at the applicant’s expense,” Anderson said. He also described T-Mobile’s alternative analysis – which it presented at the commission’s Dec. 4 meeting after Zandt’s complaint – as armchair engineering: “That was some guy pulling out a picture file and saying, ‘Yeah, that’ll work.'”
Residents at Wheeler agreed.
“I guess they thought we’d be real easy to deal with,” said Sky Williams, a three year resident of Wheeler Center. “But T-Mobile wants to keep it here so they don’t care. I guess they think ‘Oh well, it’s on a site with a bunch of senior citizens with short life spans anyway.'”
As for radiation concerns, though, William Hammett of Hammett and Edison Consulting Engineers, which T-Mobile hired, defended his report as accurate and firsthand. The professional mechanical and electrical engineer said he has done work for T-Mobile, its competitors, radio and television stations and landlords, and nobody has filed a complaint against him during his 31-year career, according to the California Board for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors.
As for his findings, Hammett calculated radiation levels at the Wheeler facility from his office in September and then actually visited the site Nov. 13 after the planning commission – largely at the behest of residents and Gong’s attorney – directed him to. After the site visit, he again reported that the cell station “easily complies” with FCC guidelines and “does not, for this reason, cause a significant impact on the environment.”
While a worker or person standing within four feet of the chimney-encased antennas would absorb more radiation than the FCC recommends, someone outside or within the building’s three floors take in 0.05 percent of the public limit at the most, according to Hammett’s measurements.
Beyond this, staff reported that nobody has complained to the city since the tower went in, but Gong – who claims he has collected more than 2,000 signatures from residents – and others have said the city cannot expect seniors to complain about something they don’t know about. Caretaker Karah Silacci said that when she explained the petition opposing the tower to the couple she tends to at Wheeler, they had no idea the tower was even there.
“They were totally confused,” Silacci said. “The residents here don’t have a voice or the power to find one. They takes things as they come.”
Gong has also pointed out that the company has not asked for more time to fully amortize its investment in the chimney that cost $65,000 in 1998. Companies are generally entitled to get their money’s worth, and if the planning commission rejects T-Mobile’s application, the company can appeal to the city council.
Commissioners have also expressed concern about South County Housing allowing the controversial chimney atop the building in exchange for rent. But John Cesare, the chief financial officer with the nonprofit developer that built the senior apartments, said 99 percent of the undisclosed rent goes to Wheeler Manor Associates, which uses the money to run the property and keep rent down.
“We indirectly own 1 percent, so if there’s a misconception that South County Housing is benefiting financially, we are not.”
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