On Sept. 5, 2011, the Albany City Council will hear Crown Castle/Verizon's appeal of a second denial of their application for new antennas at the cell tower at 423 San Pablo Ave., behind the former Wachovia building. The only way Crown Castle/ Verizon could obtain a permit to place new antennas on the pole would be to prove that there is no other site that the meets the requirements of Albany's zoning code from which wireless service can be provided to Albany residents. Crown Castle/Verizon has not performed the required analysis to demonstrate that there is no other feasible site; they declined to work with the city's consultant to prepare a complete alternatives analysis and looked only at existing nearby Crown Castle and Verizon sites but did not research new locations that conform to the city's ordinance.
New antennas cannot be added to the pole, which predates Albany's wireless zoning regulations, because it is too tall for the district where it is located, aesthetically offensive, and located within 15' of an apartment building.
In other wireless news, AT&T is expected to reapply soon to add antennas to the roof of 1035 San Pablo Ave., and T-Mobile is expected to apply to construct cell antennas on top of a utility pole at the intersection of Carmel and Solano Avenues. AT&T applied for antennas at 1035 San Pablo a year ago but was sent back to the drawing board and encouraged to look at other sites with a greater setback from residential districts because the antennas did not meet zoning requirements.
All three of the proposed antennas listed above are in the San Pablo-Solano commercial district, which is the last-preference zone for cell antennas in Albany's ordinance because of proximity to and impacts on residential districts.
No comments:
Post a Comment