The city of Irvine has had a moratorium on new wireless sites for almost a year. At a time when so many people are abandoning their home phones in favor wireless, its just not logical to prevent carriers from expanding their networks to serve their customers.
My column on this issue appeared in the Orange County Register’s Irvine World News today. Check it out here.
April 25th, 2009 at 12:00 am
The people of Turtle Rock worked for years with the city council to draft a wireless ordinance and plan for this area that worked for them and was fair to those who supported such an encroachment into our community. The draft proposal was adopted and because it did not favor the highly financed wireless carriers they ultimately decided to challenge this policy. There are at least as many opposed to the proliferation of cellular transmitters, vaults, and towers in the Turtle Rock area as those who might favor such an intrusion (maybe more). I find it interesting, there were few who supported the wireless plan proposed by the carriers who would have had such unsightly devices constructed in front of, or nearby, their homes. I know of few people who would like to see their property values deteriorate even further than they have due to a industry’s growth plan to resurrect a “mini” utility yard nearby their humble abodes. If those in favor would like to step up and provide the carriers with the appropriate space outside their bedroom windows, or near their childrens’ sand boxes, I may reconsider my staunch opposition to such an unsightly addition to our landscape…but I have heard only one person volunteer to make their own living space available for such an action. If logic were to decide such a matter, it seems only logical that those who are clamoring for the technology to increase their cellular coverage, should gather a petition in their own neighborhood of all those who favor such construction in their front yards (along with a map identifying their property lines) and submit it to the city council, and to the carriers so they might design their networks accordingly.