Panel OKs Cellular Antenna Placement

The Los Angeles Board of Zoning Appeals approved placement of a cellular telephone antenna in a Chatsworth neighborhood after a telecommunications company agreed to modify its proposal to suit the community.

L.A. Cellular spokesman Steven Crosby said the company made several changes to the design.

“We spent a lot of time with the community folks there, looking at other property and alternatives,” Crosby said. “There wasn’t much more we could have done, there are only so many locations we can put this because the field has gotten so narrow.”

The telecommunications company and the community had been at odds since February after the company applied for a conditional-use permit to build a 60-foot pole at 10239 Vassar Ave., behind a photographic supply store.

Residents were concerned that the antenna tower was too large and did not fit aesthetically with their neighborhood.

At a meeting of the two sides in August, L.A. Cellular representatives explained the reasons for building the tower at that site and the technology behind the system.

The new plan calls for a 46-foot tower, shorter and slimmer in width than existing poles in the area, more landscaping to camouflage the pole and an equipment shed, Crosby said.

Chatsworth resident Diana Dixon-Davis, the only community member to speak at the hearing, said later she was somewhat disappointed in the decision but was relieved it is over.

“It’s a compromise,” she said. “It’s not perfect, but the design is modified sufficiently so that it’s not as noticeable.”

The new pole, expected to be the last put up in the area by L.A. Cellular for “the foreseeable future,” should be in operation by early 1997, Crosby said.