AT&T's New Cell Tower Stirs Controversy

If you are concerned by the addition of a new cell phone tower atop Sand Dune Park, you may want to call your iPhone-using friends and complain. The AT&T network supporting these 3G smart phones is bombarded each minute with requests to transfer data, navigate cars, update Facebook and, yes, even make phone calls.

AT&T is pouring billions of dollars into efforts to improve the network supporting these phones, and some of those efforts took place right here in Southern California. The Manhattan Beach AT&T 3G cell site at Grandview Avenue and 27th Place is one of five designed to carry the increasingly heavy demands on the network.

3G stands for "third generation," a merging of analog cellular technology and digital/PCS technology. To be considered "3G," a phone and its network must be able to provide use of speech and data services simultaneously at a high rate of speed. To keep up with the processing power of the phones, new towers are under construction.

Just because the towers are necessary for better 3G service, though, does not mean people agree with their installation.

"It's horrendous looking," said Tom Houston, a resident of Playa del Rey who frequents Manhattan Beach daily to visit his girlfriend at her home on the 400 block of 28th Street. "They put an underground vault at 28th and Grandview… They had to put pylons in to support the hill, and that caused massive vibrations throughout the neighborhood. It did indeed feel like a huge earthquake."

To add to neighbors' woes, the drilling and construction lasted for six-months, far longer than the estimated 30-day timeframe Houston claims was proposed on a flyer distributed to residents. During this time, Houston says no compensation was given to residents who had to tolerate the construction, noise, vibration and, at one point, a massive dig into the street to repair an electric wire mistakenly cut by those working on the project.

Matt Patrickson, a renter in the immediate area, tells Patch he,"May be thinking about moving away to a safer spot." He lives just blocks from the tower. "I heard the vault can make structures less stable in the case of an earthquake. There have been a lot of shakes this year, and I'm not looking to make my life any riskier." Though the structural soundness of the vault in the case of an earthquake cannot be verified, there is evidence cell towers do affect public health.

The Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center in California provides insight on the effects of low-levels of radio frequency radiation. According to one study issued by the group, frequent exposure to cell phone tower radiation causes "evident damage to cell tissue and DNA. These radiations also reduce the competence of the immune system." Possible side effects reportedly include Leukemia. In one study, children living up to seven miles away from a tower showed a double risk of the disease.

However, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC), charged with the task of regulating the safety of the towers, does not see a major risk to public health at the current radiation levels. For its part, Manhattan Beach permits telecommunications towers only after a lengthy permit process.

Ordinances 2075 and 2076 regarding the installation of telecommunications towers in Manhattan Beach were revised in 2005. Now, permitting for all telecommunications towers on a public right of way goes straight to acting Community Development Director Laurie Jester.

The site at 27th and Grandview did not require any discretionary hearings or staff reports, according to Michael Rocque, assistant planner at the Community Development Department. "Sites proposed within the public right of way are administratively reviewed and approved by the director of Community Development," he said in an e-mail. "It is still a very detailed process to go through."

The process includes assuring FCC compliance is maintained and alternative sites have been evaluated. Public noticing materials, like the flyer Houston received, may also be required. Once approved, the construction project must be completed within 12 months.

Construction of similar towers on city property has been passed in recent months, including one tower in Live Oak Park. The construction of these towers may reduce real estate properties in the area by an estimated 10 percent according to the Burbank group ACTION (Against Cellphone Towers In Our Neighborhood).

At the heart of the cell phone tower controversy lies the age-old desire to have one's cake and eat it, too. With the high demand for 3G service in the densely-populated town of Manhattan Beach, the installation of cell phone towers seems both necessary and inevitable.

"As a business owner, I'm happy to be able to do business on my phone," said Mary Strong, owner of the Green Yogi in North Manhattan Beach. "I always drop calls here, and that's a problem when the call is important. But, I also see the other side. If it was in my front yard, I would feel differently."

With the local loyalty to the quaint offerings of a small beach city, a community dedication to health and a concern over the value of high-priced real estate, the installation of cell towers will remain, at the very least, controversial.