Granada Hills : Cellular Antenna Foes Remain Unpersuaded

Making another attempt to reassure neighbors that their proposal to place a cellular telephone antenna at a Granada Hills school is safe, representatives from L.A. Cellular held a second community meeting Tuesday night to address concerns.

The problems was, the neighbors weren’t buying it.

“We feel that there are many commercial areas within a short distance of here that would be far more acceptable to us,” said Granada Hills resident Sharon Black, who with Arline Kaltenbach has led the opposition to the company’s plan to construct a 62-foot antenna on the grounds of Patrick Henry Middle School.

Residents cited concerns about visual blight and declining property values at a Nov. 29 meeting but most oppose the project because they feel there is not enough definitive scientific evidence that cellular technology is safe.

According to Black, about 100 residents and parents turned out for Tuesday’s meeting, a 2 1/2-hour event she described as “very fiery.”

Steve Crosby, L.A. Cellular’s director of external affairs, said he feels “very safe and secure” with cellular technology and that the company is sensitive to neighbors’ feelings.

“We will do everything we possibly can to try to satisfy the community,” he said.

At a public hearing Dec. 4, L.A. Cellular asked the Los Angeles Office of Zoning Administration to delay a decision on the application for a conditional-use permit so that company representatives could meet with neighbors again. If approved, the antenna would be L.A. Cellular’s first on a Los Angeles Unified School District campus.

Associate Zoning Administrator Horace Tramel is scheduled to rule on the proposal by Jan. 4.