City Planning Panel OKs Antenna Tower

In a split vote, the city Planning Commission has granted a permit for the construction of a 73-foot cellular phone antenna, but said it will consider whether to create an ordinance that would minimize the appearance of unsightly communications towers in the future.

With few uniform federal laws governing the construction of antennas, each cellular company wants to put up their own antenna, Commissioner Keith Millhouse said.

“If you start to get each wireless company putting in telephone antennas for their wireless system then you have potentially a whole bunch of antennas dotting the landscape,” said Millhouse, who voted to approve the project along with Commissioners Ernesto Acosta and Paul Norcross.

The Nextel Communication tower would consist of a 60-foot wooden antenna that would support three panels containing additional antennas. The tower, to be placed off Walnut Canyon Road, would be erected on the southeast end of a 22-acre parcel owned by the county’s Waterworks District.

Commissioners Barton Miller and Gary Lowenberg, who argued the city already had enough antennas, were outvoted.

Commissioners also asked the city staff to bring them copies of ordinances that neighboring cities such as Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks have on the location of cellular antennas.