By Clarence Cromwell
No more ugly poles will go up in Los Gatos, the Town Council decided at its Dec. 16 meeting. The decision was in response to an appeal by Pacific Bell Mobile Services to overturn the Planning Commission's rejection of a proposed antenna site.
Efforts to dress up a 45-foot pole proposed at 400 More Ave.--by standing it in a grove of trees, painting it in bark-like tones and dark greens, and by planting five more 25-foot trees at its base--did not satisfy the council. Even with all the camouflage, the pole would still have to stick up at least six feet above tree tops to allow clear reception.
"You're going to have to get even more creative at making it look better," councilmember Randy Attaway told Pacific Bell. He asked for better camouflaging than already proposed or putting two separate antennas at other hidden sites without poles, if necessary, to cover the same area.
Other council members agreed that the antenna must be better-hidden. They voted 4-0, with Mayor Joanne Benjamin absent, to send the application back to the Planning Commission for the improvements Attaway described.
Pacific Bell had proposed to put the "monopole" antenna on a piece of San Jose Water Company property already occupied by a 75-foot Cellular One pole. Pacific Bell has approval for five of the sixantennas it proposed to provide its communication services to the town.
Pacific Bell representatives told the Planning Commission in October the company takes pride in its ability to conceal cellular panels. The three-foot "surfboard" panels that carry cellular signals have been concealed in the walls of tall buildings, on roofs, in the steeple of a church, within commercial signs and in the post of a ballpark fence. Another Pacific Bell antenna will be hidden atop an office building at 15951 Los Gatos Blvd. The council has also approved antennas on the roof of Diddams, 18 N. Santa Cruz Ave.
Nevertheless, neighbors fear that the pole, despite Pacific Bell's efforts, may resemble a painted pole when complete, they said at the meeting.
Terry Green, a Vineyard Court resident whose house overlooks the site, said the 75-foot antenna pole there dominates the landscape. "They are unsightly, and we should have no more," Green said.
Marquerite Frederick, of Chippendale Court, said she's worried that the radio waves from so many antennas in the neighborhood could affect children's health.
Town Attorney Larry Anderson said the council can not turn down a cellular antenna because of health concerns, which are the domain of the federal government. The council has jurisdiction only over the aesthetic concerns of placing antennas.
Pacific Bell's planning consultant Amy Stanton said emissions from the antenna reach only a minute fraction of the limits imposed by the federal government.
A full-sized dummy antenna, placed temporarily on the site two weeks before the public hearing, went unnoticed. Councilmembers said they did not spot it when they went to view the site before the meeting. Linda Lubeck said she was surprised to learn during last week's meeting that the test antenna had been installed.
Nor did Green--the neighbor who complained about the larger, existing antenna--notice that the 45-foot green pole had been erected.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, December 25, 1996.
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