THOUSAND OAKS : Residents Fight Plan for Radio Antenna

About 200 people jammed Thousand Oaks City Hall on Tuesday, many to protest a 150-foot-tall radio tower that Cal Lutheran University plans to build on scenic Mt. Clef.

The antenna has been the focus of community concern ever since the university announced plans last year to establish a public broadcasting station on campus.

“We feel strongly about our environment,” said Denise Filz, a spokeswoman for Friends of Mt. Clef Ridge, a group of homeowners who live near the university. “We hope everyone in the Conejo shares that view.” Many opponents wore badges depicting a tower with a slash drawn through it.

“It is a critically important issue for the university,” said Dennis Gillette, Cal Lutheran’s vice president of institutional advancement.

In April, the City Council agreed to reconsider the Planning Commission’s decision earlier in the month to allow the tower to be built, raising hopes the proposal might still be defeated.

Residents who live near Mt. Clef ridge in Thousand Oaks and in the Santa Rosa Valley have mounted a well-organized campaign against the tower.

Opponents say the tower would destroy their hillside views, and some believe that radio waves emitted by the antenna could damage their health, although an expert hired by the university disputed that claim.

The council heard supporters as well as opponents of the proposed tower in a lengthy hearing that lasted late into the night. The university also brought out a strong contingent of students, business leaders and campus officials who spoke about the need for a broadcasting station at Cal Lutheran.

Cal Lutheran has received permission from the Planning Commission to build the radio antenna as part of a plan to establish the first public broadcasting station in eastern Ventura County.

The proposed FM station, with the call letters KCLU, would be broadcast at a frequency of 88.3 and would reach an audience of about 400,000 people around the county, campus officials said.