Which side will local officials favor when they evaluate wireless facility applications that residents oppose?
Supporting “technology-friendly local candidates” in order to get more cell sites approved is one of the recommendations a site development consultant made to wireless companies in a June article (featured yesterday on Sunroom Desk). His overt call for national and multinational companies to invest in local political races should be a wake-up call to residents’ groups who don’t have deep pockets or an organized lobby.
The Daily News discussed this issue from the residents’ perspective in Cell tower issue is first test for newly formed Northridge South Neighborhood Council:
The councils are supposed to empower neighborhoods, giving them a voice in city politics. But they are left to organize on their own for the most part, and have no actual, direct power to affect city decisions.
For example, even if the Northridge South council voted unanimously to reject the tower, that would not necessarily prevent the city from approving it.
The strongest weapon the neighborhood councils have is the moral authority to serve as the unified voice of voters in the districts of local City Council members.
“Moral authority” – which in this case means a large number of vocal citizens – can clearly remind officials who they are supposed to represent. A recent Sierra Madre uprising over a 40% rise in city water rates did just that. While residents somehow fell just a few signatures short of overturning the council’s decision, the very large number of dissatisfied residents persuaded the city council to postpone the increase and schedule meetings on the subject. In Glendale, the large number of citizens concerned about wireless installation guidelines prompted a complete review and a new ordinance protecting residential areas.
Another weapon at residents’ disposal is the accumulated online knowledge of other groups (one such resource is this blog’s Wireless Facility Issues page, with links to video archives of city council and county meetings on wireless installations and local policy; another is www.cloutnow.org).