AT&T will host a community meeting this evening to gather public input about the future placement of a wireless service tower in Hermosa Beach.
The placement issue has emerged as the city looks to replace an existing wireless communications facility, attached to a utility pole on 29th Court, which does not conform to current code.
A tower would likely be necessary in North Hermosa to compensate for a coverage gap that could result if the facility on 29th Court were to be removed, said Ryan Minniear, director of public affairs for AT&T. At the meeting, which will take place at the Clark Building at 7:45 p.m., the company will take community input for a location to be approved by the City Council.
A new facility, Minniear said, would also address the surge in mobile data that has occurred since the 29th Court facility was installed in 2002.
“People are constantly using smartphones now,” he said. “The data demand has dramatically increased. So it’s a coverage and a capacity concern.”
The 29th Court facility sits close to the bedroom window of a nearby home. Following complaints by area residents, the city began looking for alternative locations in July 2014.
In between the facility’s installation and the search for a new location, the city made two modifications to its code that would affect cell tower placement, said Community Development Director Ken Robertson. It prohibited the installation of wireless communications facilities in residentially zoned areas, and it mandated that such facilities obtain a Conditional Use Permit before proceeding with installation.
AT&T had sought to obtain a CUP from the Planning Commission for a facility in the parking lot of the Hermosa Kiwanis Club at Valley Park. The plan called for replacing an existing 28-foot flagpole in the lot with 35-foot towers, each two-feet in diameter and designed to look like flagpoles.
Community outcry over the Kiwanis lot proposal prompted the planning commission to ask AT&T to return with a revised plan. The company had been set to present at the commission’s Oct. 20 meeting, but instead withdrew its proposal, and decided to seek community input on a new location.
Some area residents were glad that there would now be an opportunity for public input before a location is selected.
Public input and the city’s notification procedures were an issue in the Kiwanis proposal, with concern that too few residents had advance notice. Jeff Miller, who lives near Valley Park, sent the planning commission a letter in advance of the July meeting, noting that Valley Park is the most widely used park in the city.
Giving residents a say in siting a tower should have happened earlier, Miller said.
“They should have done this at the very start,” he said in an interview.
Area residents have also been concerned about how much money the city would receive for siting the project on city land.
The company could not immediately provide a figure, saying that would come at a later phase of the project.
“That will eventually be public information,” Minniear said. “But we’re not at that point in negotiations yet.”
