Vocal activists oppose installation
By Pam Wight Staff Writer

WHITTIER - The Whittier City Council was discussing Tuesday whether to approve a 60-foot cell phone tower at Palm Park despite residents' fears that it will be ugly, noisy and emit dangerous radiation.

The council hadn't held a vote as of press time.

The proposed tower will be disguised to look like a pine tree. But some residents said the tower's shelter will become a site for graffiti and it will produce noise.

Jeff Collier, director of community development, said that according to the federal government, the City Council was not allowed to weigh potential health concerns as long as the tower's radiation emissions meet the Federal Communications Commission's standards.

A study by DTech Communications - commissioned by the two cell phone companies that want to build the tower, Nextel and Sprint - found that the planned tower would have emissions of 0.4 percent of the FCC limit, Collier said.

Collier said the location near Palm Park was chosen because of the lack of cell towers in that area of the city.

"There are 27 or 28 locations now existing in different areas of the city," Collier said. "The one area where we don't have any is in the northwest portion of the city. We only have them in Uptown and the central and eastern portions."

He said the tower shelter would be covered with vines over a wrought-iron fence. 
 
Concerns over noise from the shelter's air-conditioning units would be solved by a block wall around the side of the facility that houses them.

The cell phone companies would be responsible for cleaning up any graffiti, Collier said.

Activists first showed up to protest the plans at the June 5 Planning Commission meeting, but the Commission passed the move in a 4-1 vote.

After residents e-mailed, called and sent fliers and letters to the City Council expressing their disapproval, Councilman Greg Nordbak requested at the June 27 City Council meeting that the issue be put to a public hearing.

"They feel they haven't had the opportunity to voice their opinions," Nordbak said that night. "It's our obligation to hear them."

All the council members said they had received numerous e-mails from residents, most of which opposed to the tower.