Toxic Exposures
California Community Scuttles Verizon Plan to Build Cell Tower Near Their Homes
Verizon withdrew its application to build a cell tower in a residential neighborhood after residents organized against it and persuaded the local homeowners association not to lease the land to the telecom giant.
More than 50 California residents successfully halted an attempt by Verizon to build a 41-foot 5G cell tower in a residential neighborhood less than 150 feet from a preschool in Carlsbad.
Commenting on the residents’ efforts, Miriam Eckenfels-Garcia, director of Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) & Wireless program, told The Defender:
“This is exactly the kind of community activism we need to push back against the reckless rollout of 5G cell towers in neighborhoods across the U.S. Until we see a significant change from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), we need to fight tower-by-tower.”
Eckenfels-Garcia also emphasized the importance of supporting federal legislation — including the Securing Local Communities Input in Broadband Development Act, a bill to remove the red tape that makes it difficult for local communities to have more say over where 5G cell towers and small cells are placed.
According to Environmental Health Trust (EHT), the bill would cancel the FCC’s 2018 regulations, known as the Small Cell Order and the Moratoria Order, that preempt local zoning authority over cell towers.
Eckenfels-Garcia praised the California residents for defeating Verizon’s planned tower but said many communities are not as lucky.
“CHD is working with communities to help them mount an effective opposition to proposed cell towers, so if your community faces a similar issue, we want to hear from you at Stop5G@childrenshealthdefense.org.”
Residents launch multiple efforts to stop tower
Beginning in May, residents of Carlsbad and San Marcos launched multiple, simultaneous efforts to stop the tower from going up.
They requested an administrative hearing before the city of Carlsbad, circulated a petition that garnered 868 signatures and pressured the local homeowners association’s (HOA) board — which had been negotiating with Verizon over the land rental agreement — to cut ties with the telecom giant.
On Sept. 11, they received word that Verizon had withdrawn its application for the project after the La Costa Oaks Community Association canceled its authorization for renting the land to Verizon. They shared the email with The Defender, which read:
“Verizon Wireless withdraws its application … because the La Costa Oaks HOA has effectively rescinded the two Letters of Authorization (dated in December 2022 and in March 2023) that were required to be submitted to the City, as well as the HOA’s signature on the Disclosure Statement P-1(A) from March 2023 that was also required to be submitted to the City as part of the application process.
“Verizon’s legal counsel has determined that without valid Letters of Authorization and the Disclosure Statement signed by the HOA, then Verizon’s project application is moot and no longer meets City requirements.”
“It was a wild ride for those four months,” a resident who preferred to remain anonymous told The Defender. The resident — a San Marcos mother who lives with her teenage daughter across the street from the proposed cell tower site — said she first learned about Verizon’s plans from a May 8 notification letter sent by the City of Carlsbad to residents.
Because of where city lines are drawn, the tower fell under the jurisdiction of Carlsbad, the mother said. “Only a few neighbors in my neighborhood were notified as by law the city only had to let people within 300 feet of the planned tower know about the project.”
HOA didn’t notify residents of its deal with Verizon
The La Costa Oaks Community Association, an HOA that manages 820 homes, had been negotiating with Verizon since 2022 about renting out the land for the proposed tower. But the HOA didn’t inform homeowners of the proposed project.
Residents who learned of the proposed tower started a petition to alert other residents. They circulated it on Nextdoor and Facebook.
According to the petition, the La Costa Oaks HOA was considering signing a roughly 30-year lease with Verizon that likely would have generated $35,000-39,000 per year for the HOA, “resulting in a revenue stream of less than $4 per home per month for the 820-home community.”
The lease also would have allowed Verizon to add more panels to the tower at its discretion and would have made it easy for additional wireless companies to put their equipment on the tower, too.
The residents focused their efforts simultaneously on two strategies, either or which would halt Verizon’s plans.
First, they worked on convincing city officials not to approve Verizon’s land use permit application — and later, on appealing the city planner’s decision to approve the application.
Second, they sought to alert the rest of La Costa Oaks homeowners to Verizon’s plans. Those homeowners, in turn, pressured the HOA board to cease negotiations with Verizon.
Cherie, a La Costa Oaks homeowner who asked that her last name not be used, read the petition. She told The Defender she was “shocked” to learn that her own HOA had tentatively given approval to rent its land to Verizon without giving notice to the homeowners.
After educating themselves on how to effectively resist a proposed cell tower, they requested an administrative hearing with the city planner — the official who would approve or disapprove Verizon’s conditional land use permit application for the tower.
Residents appeal after city planner sides with Verizon
The hearing was held on June 11. “To make a long story short,” the mother said, “the city planner sided with Verizon.”
The residents were told they had 10 days to appeal the decision. The appeal fee was $900.
The mother recalled, “So now we had to come up with $900, and we needed to file the appeal paperwork. That was a legal document where we had to show proof that the city planner had made a mistake.”
They gathered the funds and drafted the appeal. “With that, one of the neighbors marched into the city offices and filed the paperwork,” she said.
The same month, Cherie addressed the La Costa Oaks HOA board during its July meeting.
“I was given 3 minutes to speak, but then I just kept talking,” she recalled. “I prayed that God would give me the right words to get their attention and I must have stood talking for almost a half hour.”
A few weeks later, the board sent out an “update on the Verizon antennae” email to its homeowners.
The San Marcos mother said, “It was kind of funny that they called it an ‘update’ since nobody even knew about it.”
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‘It is the local residents who bear the burden’
After that, the residents drafted a flyer to direct La Costa Oaks homewners to the petition and urge them to voice their opposition to the tower at the board’s August meeting.
The residents also reached out to Kent Chamberlin, Ph.D., who had served on the 2020 New Hampshire Commission, a team of independent experts convened by the state to answer questions about the impacts and safety of cell towers and wireless radiation.
The New Hampshire Commission recommended that cell towers should be 500 meters (roughly 1,640 feet) from homes, businesses and schools.
Chamberlin is the past chair and professor emeritus in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department at the University of New Hampshire and the president of the EHT.
At the residents’ request, Chamberlin sent a letter to the HOA board members, informing them of the commission’s recommendation and warning them of security and cybersecurity issues posed by cell towers.
He pointed out that Verizon’s own coverage maps showed no gap in service for the proposed tower area but Verizon wanted to put its tower there “due to Verizon’s own business plan to expand and become a one-stop for home internet products, for their own profit.”
“When cell towers are placed in areas like LaCosta Oaks,” Chamberlin wrote, “it is the local residents who bear the burden of increased security issues, reduced property values and biological and environmental harms.”
The residents distributed their flyers to about 160 La Costa Oaks homes.
As a result, roughly 50 La Costa Oaks homeowners attended the Aug. 2 board meeting to voice their opposition to the tower.
The San Marcos mother said:
“It was the power of these homeowners who demanded a vote right then and there from the board to cut ties with Verizon and to stop all negotiations.
“And that was it! The board, of which two members were brand new and also had no clue about the planned project, voted 4-1 to cancel all negotiations with Verizon. And that forced Verizon to give up — at least in that location.”
The residents were prepared to step up their efforts if the vote didn’t go in their favor, she added. They said they would have distributed flyers to the parents whose kids attended the nearby preschool.
“We would have literally stood there right in the driveway to alert parents,” the mother said.
The Defender reached out to La Costa Oaks Community Association for comment but did not receive a response by our deadline.
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