Planners to Consider Cell Phone Antennas

A proposal to build a wireless telecommunications facility on a hillside near Meadows Reservoir will be considered by Thousand Oaks planning commissioners Monday night.

AT & T and Pacific Bell want to build on a 5,600-square-foot site near the Moorpark Freeway, off Shadow Oaks Place, in order to upgrade cellular phone service for their customers.

According to a city report, the facility would have about 12 panel antennas measuring 14 feet high and six panel antennas 6 feet high, along with other equipment. It would not require a tower because of its hillside location.

The companies plan to take a number of steps to minimize the visual impact of the project, including planting trees and painting poles and equipment in a camouflage pattern, AT & T spokesman Jon Morris said. The companies put up a replica of the facility at the site for commissioners to look at before Monday’s meeting.

Planning Commissioner Forrest Frields said the project would help improve cellular communication in a city where there are many “dead spots” because of the hilly terrain.

Planning Commission Chairman John Powers said many residents worry that if an earthquake or other natural disaster occurs, they won’t be able to use their cellular phones because of an inadequate local telecommunications infrastructure. “They want to be able to use them in case of an emergency,” he said. Fear that electromagnetic radiation from the site might harm residents prompted one Thousand Oaks resident, James T. Aidukas, to write to the city and request further environmental study of the project.

But a consultant to the two companies said the site would not pose a health risk, because radiation levels would be low. “It’s well below anything that’s a concern,” Modesto-based consultant Gerald L. Moore said.

The City Council in January extended a moratorium on new cellular phone antennas so it could come up with a set of planning guidelines to deal with the fast-growing business. But the moratorium does not affect projects that were in the development process before it was enacted.