With just three months to go before kick-off of Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco, some city dwellers are ready to sack Verizon and its prime wireless network installer, Crown Castle, over a combination of alleged eyesores and health concerns.
As Inside Towers has reported several times in recent months, there’s a cellular gold rush going on in the 49ers town as it prepares to host the February 7 Super Bowl. But, the fast build-out to densify the city with a network of DAS, small cells and microcells to meet the future demand has sparked outrage. Ludwig Chincarini wants the city to stop Verizon, otherwise, he tells CBS-owned KPIX, Verizon soon will be installing a mini cell tower right outside his living room window. “I mean, the antenna is on the pole 10 feet in front of my house,” said Chincarini.
Wireless carriers like Verizon are putting up thousands of the distributed antenna systems in the Bay Area. The industry said these towers are safe, but Chincarini is not convinced. He cited health issues, including cancer, in condemning the new cell network.
Omar Masry, the wireless planner for the city says aesthetics doesn’t refer merely to the view from your window. The city can only deny a permit if it obstructs the “public view” of a historic landmark or a park.
Martin Fineman, an attorney for Crown Castle, was quick to remind commissioners they can’t consider health concerns. “As you have heard many times now that is simply not a matter that you are allowed to take into account,” KPIX quoted Fineman.
But Chincarini, who paid $300 to file a complaint to stop installation of the new network, could be making inroads. City commissioners upheld an appeal for the second time ever, citing a technicality with the Verizon permit.
Verizon now is appealing that appeal. In a statement to KPIX 5 the company said: “The demand for mobile data services in the U.S. has nearly doubled over the last year, and is expected to grow 650 percent between 2013 and 2018. With San Francisco’s population continuing to rise at a record pace, and thousands of people coming to the city every day for work and to visit, adding capacity to our network is critical to keep the city connected.
Crown Castle told KPIX 5 it “takes numerous factors into consideration during the design, engineering and construction of our network in order to most effectively provide the community with enhanced broadband service. Crown Castle believes the carefully engineered poles and route locations selected represent the best option for its network to benefit the community.”
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