Residents Angered by Cell Tower Loophole

When Mt. Holyoke resident Andy Dintenfass peered out of his window last week, he looked no farther than the telephone pole in front of his house, which according to him was being saddled with four 5-ft. Cingular cellular antennas ‘at eye level.’ ‘The installation starts at eye level on the pole with various transporters, fuse and electrical and equipment boxes, and works its way to three vertical antennas hung on an outrigger high on the pole over the street,’ Dintenfass told the Palisadian-Post. The equipment was installed on an existing telephone pole without the necessity of a public meeting because of what Dintenfass characterized as ‘a loophole for cellular companies.’ In a Joint Point Agreement, cellular companies can piggyback onto an existing telephone pole in an administrative procedure that provides no regulatory restraints. According to the L. A. Department of Water and Power, the JPA is just an operating agreement between utilities, said Community Council Chairman Norm Kulla, whose appointed council subcommittee has been studying the issue for 18 months. ‘Any signatory can use any other signatory’s poles,’ Kulla explained. ‘More importantly, though, companies are not required to adhere to the City’s Above Ground Facilities (AGF) ordinance, enacted in January 2003. All notice requirements, public input provisions and aesthetic restraints of the AGF ordinance are not applicable to any signatory to the JPA.’ When Dintenfass questioned the chief engineer from Bechtel, the contractor for the installation of the equipment, he empathized, but said ‘they’ve got this loophole.’ When Dintenfass talked to the AT& T Cingular manager, he responded by pointing out that ‘it’s not savory, but it’s not illegal.’ While Dintenfass and his neighbors value and support the need for improved communication via cell phone coverage in the bluffs area, they worry that the construction ‘sets a precedent for our neighborhoods to place future installations without regard to aesthetics. He and his neighbors on Mt. Holyoke, including Karen Dawn, Jim Holcomb and Tom and Roz Nieman, have enlisted the help of Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski and the Palisades Community Council. ‘We know that Cingular and Bechtel have the resources to find a solution that will not have everlasting effects on our street and potentially on any street they deem to be an appropriate cell site,’ the neighbors stated in a letter to the Palisadian-Post. ‘This construction sets a precedent for our neighborhoods and we call on you, our friends and neighbors, to support us in our determined effort to have this facility removed and any future installations placed in a more suitable spot, away from homes.’ In his plea before the council last Thursday, Dintenfass stressed once again, ‘It is large and ugly, an aesthetic and emotional encroachment.’ Kulla registered the Council’s support by agreeing to draft a letter to Cingular, urging the company to relocate the equipment and any future pole-mounted facilities away from homes.