NORTHRIDGE : Residents Want 75-Foot Tower Built Elsewhere
It was a letter of both praise and pleading, and Neil Fitzpatrick of AirTouch Cellular allowed himself a chuckle at the completeness of its irony.
In one sentence the writer expressed awe at the wonder of her cellular telephone--and in the next sentence she asked AirTouch to please not place a cellular transmission tower in her Northridge neighborhood.
“It was perfect,” Fitzpatrick said of the letter. “People like the benefits but don’t realize some of the things that go with it.”
Neighbors of the proposed 75-foot tower--to be placed on land belonging to the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, near the intersection of Balboa Boulevard and Plummer Street--say it’s less an issue of fickleness than concern for the neighborhood.
“I use all the modern conveniences (including a cellular phone), so I know that we need the utilities,” said Goldie Weis, who lives less than a block away from the proposed site. But “we would like to keep this a residential neighborhood,” she added.
AirTouch says a tower is needed in the area to improve service and keep up with the boom of cellular phone users.
Residents say there are plenty of other places to put it, including commercial sites outside their quaint neighborhood.
Weis and neighbor Patty Perry have sent other residents letters encouraging them to oppose the tower--the subject of both an upcoming Los Angeles Planning Commission hearing and an informational meeting at the church.
Perry said there is a “myriad of reasons” to be concerned about the proposal. Residents fear the tower would lower property values, as well as open the door to more commercial operations in the residential area, she said.
And, she added, “We don’t know what the health risks are.”
Cellular phones can be operated on the move because their signal is picked up by one “cell” and passed to another as a dialing driver, for example, heads down the road. If the caller moves into an area without a cell, or with a cell loaded to capacity, the signal is lost.
Fitzpatrick said the tower proposed for the Northridge site, a 60-foot mono-pole with attached antennas that will extend to 75 feet, would not be a Gargantuan metallic eyesore, but more like a large light pole one might see at Dodger Stadium.
“If you had a large gathering of people, you’d get more energy than you would from this,” he said, noting that the human body produces a small electrical field. He added that many basement-run ham radios operate at higher power levels.
The Planning Commission will hear arguments on a conditional use permit for the tower July 25 at 1 p.m. at the Sherman Oaks Women’s Club, 4808 Kester Ave. Officials from both the church and AirTouch Cellular will meet with residents Tuesday at 7 p.m. at the church, 9400 Balboa Blvd.
