In largely rural Santa Barbara County, CA, a series of new cell towers will soon dot the landscape. According to the Santa Maria Sun, the County Planning Commission gave its unanimous approval to the project, which will benefit emergency services in the region. The new radio towers will stand 75-feet to 125-feet tall.
“We’ve been working on this project for approximately five years,” stated Patrick Zuroske, Assistant Director of Santa Barbara County General Services. “We’ve gone through an extensive design process to make sure that we can close many of the service gaps that exist throughout the system.” He added that the towers were needed because there are “multiple areas throughout the county where our reception and performance is less than ideal.”
However, before allowing the project to proceed, the plans were delayed for further review. “There’s no denying that the ability to send radio signals long-distance requires these towers to be high,” said Planning Commissioner C. Michael Cooney. “But I did think it is worthwhile to hear justification for the public, for the public’s benefit as to why they may be seeing these in the near future in their neighborhood. I reviewed the item over the weekend,” he continued, “and what concerned me about it is the number of tall towers, 100 feet or more, in many of these proposed developments.”
County Planner, Ben Singer, noted that there are nine radio towers under scrutiny, notes the Santa Maria Sun. Some will be new structures, while others will feature upgrades to existing towers. In response to a question from Commissioner Vincent Martinez about whether the towers would be available for commercial use, General Services Project Manager Zahid Masood replied that government agencies would have access to the towers, but commercial entities would not.
Following the additional review and discussion, the commissioners approved the radio tower upgrades.
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