Review Proposed Telecom Installations in the Piedmont Avenue Neighborhood
- Target:
- Piedmont Avenue Neighborhood Improvement League (PANIL)
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- panil.org
Help protect our neighborhood! Unsightly telecom poles & cabinets are proposed for our busy sidewalks!
Sponsored by the Piedmont Avenue Neighborhood Improvement League (PANIL)
What this is about:
Unsightly telecom poles & cabinets are proposed for our busy sidewalks!
Crown Castle, working for Verizon, proposes to install six poles along Piedmont Avenue, Oakland. Other carriers (AT&T, T-Mobile, Sprint, etc) are expected to follow, so this project will set a critical precedent for standards city-wide.
State and federal laws allow the pole owner to control the appearance of equipment later placed on the poles after the initial installations are approved. Thus, the City can approve a somewhat intrusive installation on a privately owned pole, but then wind up with a blatantly offensive installation such as seen on Moraga Ave, near the intersection with Ramona. (Unfortunately, existing laws forbid decisions being made based on health concerns related to radiation.)
See www.panil.org for more information.
To members of the Oakland Planning Commission:
We the undersigned request that the Planning Commission deny the applications submitted by Crown Castle for telecommunication installations along Piedmont Avenue. The proposals are not compatible with the Piedmont Avenue context, from either a current or a future perspective, as the City works to improve streetscapes, attract quality redevelopment, and encourage upkeep by neighbors.
We request that the Commission require Crown Castle develop new proposals which include the following features:
• Oakland shall own the poles, as is done in San Francisco and will be done in Piedmont.
• All equipment must be mounted on the poles, not on the sidewalk, to reduce sidewalk obstruction.
• Designs must be minimally intrusive in appearance.
• Passively cooled equipment must be used to avoid the impact of noisy fans.
The Review Proposed Telecom Installations in the Piedmont Avenue Neighborhood petition to Piedmont Avenue Neighborhood Improvement League (PANIL) was written by Gabriela Crane and is in the category Neighborhood Living at GoPetition.