Sunroom Desk

Of four California cities receiving an A grade for tobacco control efforts this month, three – Glendale, Albany, and Richmond – are also committed to strong municipal oversight of wireless installations. This is the second year in a row Glendale got a top grade; last year when news of the first award was announced at city hall, Glendale resident John McMahon told council members Glendale should take a similar lead in wireless facilities oversight, and a strong draft ordinance is now up for review.

Albany’s wireless ordinance has several provisions sought by Glendale Organized Against Cell Towers. It does not permit installations in residential areas unless “substantial technical evidence acceptable to the Planning and Zoning Commission is submitted showing a clear need for this facility and the infeasibility of locating it elsewhere.” It mandates setbacks from residential property lines, and it discourages installations on public right-of-ways within or abutting residential districts and school or park sites.

Richmond residents lost a battle at the California Court of Appeals to prevent a neighborhood cell tower, but the dispute sparked a two-year-long rewrite of the city’s wireless ordinance and the adoption of tough rules. The new ordinance requires conditional use permits for all but exempt wireless facilities; “maximum achievable setbacks” from child care facilities, schools, residences, hospitals, and mixed-use areas; and proof that for applications in residential areas, “no alternate site or design can feasibly close a significant gap in the radio frequency coverage of the project applicant using any less intrusive means to close that gap from any other zone.”