Update: Plan to Build More Cell Towers Backed

Update: The City Council is expected to discuss this issue at its scheduled meeting at 6 p.m. Aug. 10

The Agoura Hill Planning and Development Commission voted 5-0 Thursday night to recommend an ordinance to the City Council that would allow the placement of more cellphone towers throughout the city.

The measure would allow more towers and supporting facilities that provide wireless access to customers to be built in areas north of the 101 Freeway and in the southeast corner of the city, also along the freeway.

"Demand [for wireless connection] is increasing so rapidly that the need for more sites is inevitable and the need to change sites is inevitable," said Commissioner John O'Meara during the meeting. "I certainly think in Agoura Hills, we don't want to fall behind in technology and … we certainly don't want to thwart businesses from coming to Agoura Hills and making it, in that regard, the best that it possibly can be." 

Under the ordinance, shopping centers, business parks and the would be opened to installation of cell company facilities, as well as schools such as , and .

However, the ordinance also would prohibit any towers from being built within 100 feet of a residential zone.

When asked by O'Meara why the ordinance opens up so many school sites, Gena Stinnett, staff member of the commission, responded that most of the areas in northern Agoura Hills are residential and that the cell companies would have very few places on which to construct towers. Stinnett said using only commercial and industrial sites for the towers would not cover gaps in service.

"Especially north of the freeway, there are not that many zoned areas where wireless facilities can go, and by adding schools, it opens it up so there can be some penetration and gaps filled in residential areas," Stinnett said.

She acknowledged, that in the past, Agoura Hills residents have been angry over the construction of towers at schools. "Additionally, to the extent that the public may not be happy about school zones being included, keep in mind that the schools, as the property owners, have the right to say no," she said. "There's no state or federal law that requires a school to put up an antenna on their property. Really, as the property owner, they're the first line of defense if the public doesn't want them."

Despite this, such towers have already been allowed on school sites in Agoura Hills. According to a  from last January, the signed a contract with T Mobile in January 2009 to allow a tower to be built at Lindero Canyon Middle School after the school board found that it did not pose a risk to students' safety. 

The city tried to prevent the tower's construction but lost its legal battle with T Mobile last year when the U.S. District Court ruled that it did not have the right to stop the cellphone company.

Dan Revetto, a spokesman for AT&T, said at the meeting that the cell company understood that "one size does not fit all" in regard to placing towers within the community.

O'Meara said the ordinance would help cell companies expand coverage to the area while putting the burden on them to do so in the least intrusive way possible.

The three parts of the ordinance can be viewed on the city's website.