City Council Holds Off on Communications Tower Moratorium

The Walnut Creek City Council will hold off on any decision on a moratorium on wireless communication towers in residential areas, at least until it holds a study session on the issue in January. 

At its Tuesday night meeting, the council also asked city staff to commission an engineering study  that looks at whether the St. Stephen's church property is the only place for AT&T to build an antenna to provide better cell phone coverage to residents of northwest Walnut Creek.

The nearly four-hour meeting was another chapter in a growing debate about how Walnut Creek deals with the proliferation of wireless communication antennas. Like other communities, Walnut Creek faces a growing demand for faster, more efficient wireless service for cell phones, laptop computers and GPS monitors.

Last week, the council decided to look at a moratorium at the end of a two-hour study session. The purpose of that session was to review the city's wireless communication facilities ordinance.

But council members agreed Tuesday night to delay issuing a moratorium. In addition to there being difficult legal grounds for issuing the moratorium,  council members also want to see a work plan outlining when changes to the existing wireless ordinance could happen. 

Council member Bob Simmons agreed the city needs to revisit its ordinance to "provide a higher level of protection for neighborhoods." But he expressed the view that a moratorium is "a selective tool."

Representatives of cell phone companies said the city's existing ordinance can address any community concerns that arise from applications. They also noted the city should only issue a moratorium if it is dealing with a threat to public health or safety. 

Mardi Veiluva, who is leading the Buena Vista neighborhood opposition to the St. Stephen's church tower proposal, urged the council to adopt the moratorium, based on the "unprecedented turnout" of last week's study session.

"We have a broad base of citizens who feel strongly about this issue," she said.

Veiluva also presented the central arguments related to the more specific issue surrounding the St. Stephen's church wireless tower proposal.  She is one of the named parties in an appeal of a Planning Commission decision to allow AT&T to install its antenna in a simulated tree on a knoll on the church property.

Veiluva spoke about how the 20-foot antenna potentially will create a "visual blight" in the neighborhood.  She also contended AT&T has not been forthright about what existing trees will be cut back or removed to make room for the antenna. Moreover, she questioned whether residents in the area lack sufficient wireless coverage or AT&T is just trying to gain "a competitive advantage." 

The argument Veiluva and other tower opponents made that ultimately held sway with council members had to do with whether AT&T sufficiently investigated other sites in that section of Walnut Creek to install an antenna. 

Councilman Gary Skrel said he believed AT&T "truly wants to provide better service to citizens of Walnut Creek" and suspects the dispute "boils down to the fact that residents just don't want the cell site at St. Stephen's church."

He also said he had not heard much to convince him that AT&T had not met the conditions of the city's ordinance. 

Simmons said Skrel might be correct in saying AT&T had met most of the requirements of the ordinance, but he was not satisfied the company had sufficiently explored alternate sites.  

Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Silva said it would be helpful to have a third-party expert, aside from an AT&T engineer, provide an opinion on the site and the area's cell phone coverage. 

Mayor Sue Rainey also was not satisfied with AT&T's review of the site,

The council ordered a "peer review" for which the city will pick an engineer team, at AT&T's expense, to determine whether the church property is the best place in for the tower.

"AT&T may have all the best intentions wanting to provide good service, but I'm not satisfied with the thoroughness of the analyses of site locations," Rainey said.