| | | A Verizon spokesman explains the details of a proposed 78-foot cell phone tower on top of Mt. Barnabe during a Planning Commission field trip. | |
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Fearing the county’s approval of a plan that would allow Verizon to erect a 78-foot cell tower disguised as a pine tree on Mt. Barnabe, seven Lagunitas residents have retained a lawyer and are ready to sue.
“What is being proposed is a Washington Monument type structure on a ridgeline, visible for all to see,” states a 16-page letter that the lawyer, San Rafael based Rifkind Chitsaz, LLP, sent to the county Planning Commission last Monday.
Roger Hopfensperger owns the ten acre property on the north slope of Mt. Barnabe where the tower is to be built. He applied for a permit for the project last November. The opposed neighbors say the tower will be an eyesore, and that it doesn’t comply with state environmental regulations and local community plans.
But Christine Gimmler, senior planner with the Marin County Community Development Agency, says that the project is in environmental compliance because no trees will be removed and only a small amount of grading will be done. The issue will be discussed at the Civic Center by the Planning Commission on Monday.
“A lot of our friends and acquaintances have complained,” said Hopfensperger, referring to the lack of cell phone coverage in West Marin, “they actually yell at us and say why don’t you make life better for all of us.”
The Verizon tower would improve cell phone coverage in Point Reyes Station, Inverness, Olema and Nicasio. Up to three other service providers, including Sprint and Nextel, would later install their own antennas on the tower, which would be accompanied by a 240-square foot equipment shed, a 60-kilowatt generator and a 210-gallon diesel tank.
Neighbors would rather see a tower lower down in the valley where it would be less visible. But Gimmler says it would take five towers lower down to equal the coverage provided by one atop Barnabe.
In the past, Hopfensperger has opposed telecommunication antennas in the area based on environmental concerns. He spoke out against the county’s 1994 approval of a set of communication antennas at a lookout tower located 200 feet south of the proposed Verizon tower because he was worried about electromagnetic field emissions (EMFs), which some studies have linked to fatigue, irritability and nausea for those living within 300 meters of the pole.
“We don’t want it because it’s more radiation,” said Diane Matthew, who is part of the group that has retained legal counsel. She and her husband run a sheep farm located about a mile away from the proposed tower.
The federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 says state and local governments cannot ban telecommunication poles because of health concerns as long as the tower complies with Federal Communications Commission standards for permissible exposure to EMF emissions.
Hammett and Edison, a firm retained by the county, assessed the EMF emissions and determined that levels would remain below 3.3 percent of the applicable public exposure limits. Even with the three other service providers antennas present, exposure would never exceed 11 percent of acceptable limits, according to the county’s report.
Even if the tower goes up, Point Reyes and Inverness won’t necessarily have complete coverage because the terrain is so hilly, explained Peter Maushardt, Verizon’s northern California site development manager. Plans for a future tower on Mt. Vision, which would enhance coverage for those areas, are in the works, he said. For now, the Barnabe tower is enough of a headache.
Last Monday, Planning Commission officers and the Board of Supervisors hosted a meeting atop Barnabe to learn about the project. The wind was howling, the sky was overcast and temperatures were cold. About two dozen people stood bundled up in winter caps and windbreakers.
Afterwards, several opposed neighbors remained on the mountaintop to discuss their plan of attack, but they didn’t stay long.
“Come on guys,” said Matthew, “we’re getting zapped.”
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