Letter: South Lake Tahoe cell tower location standards needed

Thank you for the opportunity to share the concerns of residents in the Ski Run /Needle Peak Road residential area with the proposed 112-foot Verizon cell tower.

There is an urgent need for the South Lake Tahoe City Council to adopt a cell tower ordinance to give reassurance to existing residents that their neighborhoods will not be compromised. There needs to be certainty to telecommunications companies by making clear where they can locate their facilities. An urgency ordinance may be adopted by the City Council with a 4/5 vote of its members.

Cell tower and facilities master plan needed

City government also needs to require that all Verizon, AT&T and any other service providers develop and present a master plan for their proposed deployment of 112-foot cell towers and other communications facilities for local government and public review and approval. Such a plan would then go through the public review process and be subject to environmental review under the California Environmental Quality Act. At the present time, without a cell tower ordinance, City staff has no policy direction on how to respond to applications for cell tower and micro-stations willy-nilly deployment in the community. A standard is needed. A cell tower ordinance needs to be adopted. Residents need not wake up one morning and find a cell facility in their front yard.

Stop willy-nilly deployment
The current argument that 112-foot cell towers and willy-nilly deployment of other micro-facilities are exempt from environmental review, taken in their aggregate, is nonsense. We live an environmentally sensitive environment that requires careful and thorough environmental review of large cell towers and related systems.

Vast amount of public lands available
Cities in California have adopted cell tower ordinances prohibiting them from existing residential areas or severely restricting their deployment. We need such an ordinance, and there is a growing discomfort in the community with the lack of a standard for cell tower and micro-tower deployments. We deserve better. There is a vast amount of public lands within the City limits owned by the USFS, CTC, LTCC, City, RCD, and STPUD where towers could arguably be located. Our understanding is that the City Manager communicated with Verizon to carefully and completely explore these options to avoid public uproar and public mistrust.

Create reassurance and certainty in the process
The City Council and TRPA regulators need to create certainty in this process. City government needs to adopt an urgency ordinance prohibiting cell tower deployment in existing residential areas and setting standards for their deployment.

Telecommunication companies need certainty regarding the standards that will be applied to their proposed locations.

We asked corporate management of Verizon in New York and the Tahoe Prosperity Center, advocates for cell tower deployment, to work with us to achieve our objectives to protect our neighborhoods and provide certainty to companies wishing to improve communications. I understand that improved communications is needed.

Support the people who live here
The people of the community need to urge the City Council to adopt a cell tower ordinance now and support the integrity of existing residents and existing residential neighborhoods.

- David M. Jinkens, MPA
Good Government and Public Policy Advocate
City Resident