Verizon’s proposed ten-site small cell build out for the City of Sonoma, CA has met some opposition since it was proposed last year, according to the Sonoma Index-Tribune. It was almost a full year ago, on August 24, 2017, that the City of Sonoma Planning Department received the first of 10 applications from Verizon to build a series of “small cell nodes.”
The first was installed on a utility pole at 725 Verano Ave with nine more applications being put before the City of Sonoma Planning Department to complete the job. The remainder of the sites have been met with pushback from local residents, however, challenging their need to exist, safety and effect on property values. In response, the Planning Department will hold its first public hearing on August 30, which is a meeting long overdue, according to opponents.
“People should be entitled to due process,” City Councilmember Amy Harrington told the Index-Tribune. Not only is Harrington’s house near one of the proposed sites but she is a cancer survivor and leery of RF emanating “a few feet from my front door.”
City Manager Cathy Capriola said Verizon has since suspended the seven residential applications that may be canceled by the end of the year if no further work is done.
Three commercially-zoned sites will be reviewed by the Planning Commission at the August hearing. The city has hired a telecommunications consultant to assess the “operational capacity of the proposed facilities and support equipment,” the Index-Tribune reported.
August 14, 2018
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