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The Danville Town Council voted unanimously Tuesday to move forward with an ordinance to standardize design guidelines and location preferences for wireless communication facilities.
The updated regulations for cell towers in Danville are intended to provide the town greater control over the aesthetics and placements of these facilities in the face of federal laws that state no local authority can inhibit wireless services, according to town officials.
The council members all agreed that the proposed ordinance is a positive step forward in ensuring the town’s ability to promote the beauty and safety they seek for the town and its residents.
“We’re trying to write the best ordinance we can to be ahead of the curve,” Councilwoman Renee Morgan said at the Town Meeting Hall.
The proposal will implement an incentive-based permitting process that will give preference to the establishment of wireless communication facilities that meet certain guidelines. These guidelines include establishing facilities in areas that are not in the downtown business district, that are at least 250 feet away from residences, that are in major arterial roadways, and that will be merged with or replacing existing infrastructure in the public right of way.
According to the language of the ordinance, if these guidelines are not adequately met or not met with compromise by a wireless communication company, the town has the authority to deny the provider a permit to build the cell tower.
The town worked in conjunction with San Diego-based Telecom Law Firm in order to craft the language of this ordinance to maintain the town’s authority while remaining compliant with federal law. Meetings to discuss the new ordinance began in April.
The proposed ordinance is scheduled to return to the council for a second reading and final adoption on Aug. 21.
Editor’s note: Anumita Kaur is a freelance writer for DanvilleSanRamon.com
Editor’s note: Anumita Kaur is a freelance writer for DanvilleSanRamon.com
Editor’s note: Anumita Kaur is a freelance writer for DanvilleSanRamon.com
San Ramon needs to follow suit.
The challenge for politicians in general and, in this case, Danville pols in particular, is balancing the practicalities of utilitarianism and the vagaries of politics as practiced by ill- and mal-informed pols each with an agenda that usually involves raising campaign funds with a jaundiced-eye on getting re-elected and their noisiest, splinter-group constituents. As demands for better/the best available wireless services, pols will almost always dilute (at best) the utility of a project in favor quieting/appeasing the loudest opposition who are typically in the minority/significant minority (because that’s who they hear the most/consistently from).
This may be off-topic, but if the council members really want to “promote the beauty and safety they seek for the town and its residents”, they will not allow our utility boxes to be painted bright colors like they did in San Ramon. I am not against art, and some of the artist did a great job, but it takes away from our beautiful area and looks more like a city with graffiti.
Why have these cell towers in our community in the first place? If they aren’t for public use of WiFi downtown then why have them at all? I don’t want more EMFs in my life!! We are bombarded anyway without our consent so why consent to more? I don’t want any more exposure!
@Kim C,
I don’t know why people keep bringing this opposition to cell towers and radio waves. There is no scientific reason to believe that radio waves from cell towers cause any kind of health problems at all. Individual photons from cell towers have less than a millionth of the energy of a photon of visible sunlight (and still less than ultraviolet light). Look at the photon energy in the link below. Also, even standing very close to the tower, the aggregate energy reaching a person is quite small, and falls off as the inverse square of the distance from the tower.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electromagnetic_spectrum
The link below from the American Cancer Society gives a fairly good summary of the effects of radio frequency radiation from cell towers.
https://www.cancer.org/cancer/cancer-causes/radiation-exposure/cellular-phone-towers.html
Please do not fall prey to fear-mongering from non-scientific conspiracy theorists.
Also, think of when you may need to call 911, and happen to be in a hole in the local cell coverage and being unable to make a life saving call.
By the way, I live in Pleasanton, and we have our own problems with cell coverage.
BoBb – I doubt that you are a Radiation Scientist or an expert on the effects of Microwave Radiation. Please open your mind to the potential harm from wifi.