The property owner at the site of a cell tower proposal that has drawn heat from the nearby homeowners has suggested revisions to the project that are intended to allay the concerns of the potential visual impact voiced by the neighbors.
Morgan Hill Bible Church asked the applicant, Verizon, to revise the plans for the telecommunications tower so it would be less intrusive to the surroundings, according to the church’s pastor David Whitaker. Specifically, the church asked Verizon to lower the height of the tower from 75 to 50 feet. The church also proposed an alternate location on the property to place the antenna, where it would blend in more closely with the tree line.
Whitaker said Tuesday, Feb. 23, that he had not heard back from Verizon or the Santa Clara County Planning Department—which has land use jurisdiction on the unincorporated site—on the proposed cell tower revision.
The county planning office has been reviewing the original 75-foot tower proposal since September 2015, and was almost ready earlier this month to send it to the planning commission for a public hearing and consideration of approval. However, Carl Hilbrants, Senior Planner for Santa Clara County, said Feb. 24 that he just heard earlier this week about the proposed modifications to the proposal.
“We got some correspondence from some neighbors and their representatives, and these were given to the applicant and the property owner, and they decided to contemplate moving the cell site some 300 to 400 feet to the east and lowering it to 50 feet in height,” Hilbrants said. “The project has been put on hold, temporarily.”
It is possible that the applicant may still want to proceed with the original proposal, but is currently considering the options and whether or not the alternate site is suitable, Hilbrants continued.
Representatives of the Morgan Hill Bible Church, 15055 Monterey Road, were approached by Verizon in early 2015 with a request to place the 75-foot tower near the far western edge of the approximately eight-acre property, Whitaker said in September. The original site, which was submitted to the county planning department, was located next to a giant oak tree behind the church’s baseball field. The tower would be designed to look similar to a tree.
Whitaker said this week that when the project was first proposed, he and church representatives didn’t hear much in the way of complaints or feedback from the residential neighbors. However, as the county’s review proceeded, opposition grew.
“By the time this got stirred up by one neighbor in particular, we were already under contract with Verizon, and we had to honor our contract. But we definitely wanted to accommodate and work with the neighbors,” Whitaker said Tuesday.
One of the correspondences sent to county planning in opposition to the original proposal was from former San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed, who is now a land use attorney for the Hopkins & Carley law firm. Working on behalf of property owner Dan Enbom—whose rural estate is about 200 feet from the original cell tower site—Reed sent a letter to the county, City of Morgan Hill and the Local Agency Formation Commission Jan. 22 listing numerous problems with the 75-foot tower proposal.
The letter states the environmental study of the project does not “seriously consider” impacts to nearby residents and schools, and the original height, design and location do not comply with the county’s own Wireless Telecommunications Facilities Design Guidelines, among other concerns.
“The proposed tower is to be located in the worst possible location on the property relative to the closest residences,” Reed’s letter said.
Reed’s letter also suggested the tower could be lowered to 50 feet.
Yet another complication with the proposal is that while the Bible Church property currently sits in the county’s unincorporated jurisdiction, the property could soon be annexed into the city limits of Morgan Hill. On March 11, the LAFCO board will hear a request by the city to extend its Urban Service Area boundary around the Bible Church (see story on page A1), at the church’s request. Whitaker said if that request is approved, the church will seek to be annexed into the city limits.
But the city’s land use ordinance limits the height of cell towers to 50 feet (the height of Morgan Hill Bible Church’s proposed modifications to the original proposal). The city does not currently have a cell tower ordinance, but the county does.
“If (the property) is coming to Morgan Hill, they ought to be respectful of the Morgan Hill guidelines,” Reed said last week, before the county or neighbors heard the church was considering lowering the tower’s height.
The city wants to annex the Bible Church property in order to tighten up its boundaries and make future growth more orderly.
Whitaker said the church wants to be inside the city limits in order to take advantage of nearby city services—including water and sewer—in order to facilitate their growth on the property.
