T-Mobile Skips Glendale Requirement for Public Hearing by Obtaining Permits from City Engineer


To discover if other cellular telephone antennae have been approved for installation in Glendale neighborhoods, I contacted the Planning Department and spent a long time on the phone with a staff member who could find no information on file whatsoever.

He finally asked around and found out that permits were being issued by the City Engineer’s office instead of by the Planning Department.

This was after he explained that Glendale’s zoning code requires a conditional use permit for wireless telecommunications equipment installation. That is, if the installation is applied for through the Planning Department for any residential zone in the city. The relevant section of the code is here on page 5 of the .pdf file.

A conditional use permit requires a public hearing, which is indicated by the “C” in the table on page 5.

However, a permit issued by the City Engineer’s Office, for installation of equipment on city property (parkways are city property), requires no public hearing and presumably very little notice. I haven’t heard back from the City Engineer’s Office yet, so I can’t explain their procedures.

What seems clear from explanations already provided is that both T-Mobile and the city are defining parkways as separate from their surrounding residential zones, in order to avoid going through the Planning Department process and holding a public hearing.

The zoning map of Glendale does not show parkway/city property separately from the surrounding R1 and R1R zones near Cumberland Road. T-Mobile and any city staff who have directed cellular antenna applications to the City Engineer’s Office are maneuvering against the straightforward intent of Glendale’s municipal code.