GILROY
– A draft ordinance that generally discourages wireless
telecommunication towers in residential areas is on the City
Council’s agenda Monday night.
GILROY – A draft ordinance that generally discourages wireless telecommunication towers in residential areas is on the City Council’s agenda Monday night.

The city Planning Commission recommended approval of the ordinance – with a few changes – in a 5-1 vote Thursday night, with Commissioner Paul Correa voting against it.

The ordinance, if approved, would give incentives for cellular-phone services and other such wireless companies to build their towers in commercial or industrial zones. If a company still wants to build a tower in a residential or mixed-use zone, it would need a city permit. Such permits would be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. Also encouraged are grouping commercial antennas, mounting them on pre-existing structures (light poles, buildings, etc.) and “stealth” towers hidden from view.

“Essentially what we’re doing is regulating appearances, and I don’t have a problem with that,” Councilman Bob Dillon said Thursday.

The proposal’s most vocal public criticism, however, revolves not around aesthetics but a health concern. Many city residents say the proposal doesn’t go nearly far enough to protect people from the close-range effects of broadcast radiation because it doesn’t specify a minimum distance telecommunications towers must keep from schools, homes and city water tanks.

Dillon said health concerns about radiation are unfounded and unsupported by the federal government.

“We all stand in front of the microwave in the morning and heat up coffee, and none of us has grown two heads yet,” Dillon said. “The proposed 2,500-foot radius would essentially shut down telecommunications in Gilroy, because you can’t do it. I don’t think there’s an antenna in Gilroy that’s not 2,500 feet from a residential area.”

Watsonville has a law banning telecommunications towers within 1,500 feet of schools and 500 feet of homes, one of the largest such setbacks. San Benito County officials are considering similar setbacks.

Christopher Coté has become a local activist on tower restriction, starting last year when a wireless tower was proposed for a city water tank near his Welburn Avenue home.

“I’m gratified that Gilroy is joining the dozens of California municipalities in (restricting wireless telecommunications towers); however, it’s one of the weakest ordinances of any municipality I’ve seen,” Coté said. “It’s a good first step, but we should be beyond the first step. … Gilroy should have the best ordinance there is, not the weakest.”

Certain technologies would be exempted from the Gilroy ordinance, including wireless facilities for public safety and medical use, citizen-band radio, amateur radio, most television antennas or dishes, temporary and hand-held mobile wireless units and small wireless Internet transmitter/receivers.

The Planning Commission agreed to one of the many recommendations Coté made Thursday – namely, that neighbor notification (paid for by the company) of new towers in residential areas be extended to include residences within 500 feet of a tower in a commercial or industrial area as well.

Previous articleIced by Rink
Next articleHigh school football scores

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here