Thousand Oaks : Approval Sought for College Radio Tower

Cal Lutheran University officials have asked Thousand Oaks to speed up approval of a site for the 150-foot radio tower that the campus has proposed building along the city’s western border.

The city-owned site is the second choice for the university. The university dropped its first proposed site on Mountclef Ridge after it was opposed by hundreds of residents.

The new site is about five miles west of Mountclef Ridge overlooking the Santa Rosa Valley.

CLU’s request to change the site on its application for the tower will be considered tonight by the City Council. However, the council may require further environmental reviews.

The signal at the new site would not be as powerful as on Mountclef Ridge, university Vice President Dennis Gillette said. The antenna for a planned a public radio station to be called KCLU-FM is intended to reach most of Ventura County.

“There are minor reductions in coverage and quality, but those reductions are acceptable to us,” he said Monday.

Gillette said he was sure that there would be little opposition to the new site since it is located far from residential neighborhoods.

There are already three towers on the site, a 97-foot Southern California Edison antenna and two high-voltage lines about 107 feet high.

The campus was issued a permit by the Federal Communications Commission to build the tower in August, 1990. That permit expired July 19, and the university has filed for an extension. However, it has not yet heard from the commission, Gillette said.