They were the latest batch of local residents to publicly oppose a cellular antenna project in recent months. A group of neighbors in La Crescenta appealed a county planning decision in August to allow the installation of Sprint Nextel gear atop a Foothill Boulevard office building, also citing poor aesthetics and unknown health effects from the radio waves.
Homeowners in the northwest Glendale neighborhood said they received only vague notices of the coming project in the mail or on their doorknobs Nov. 7, leaving little time to research the permit and ask about the cellular antenna.
Only a city-imposed stop-work order, they argued, could halt construction Monday before it was too late.
“It’s been our dream to live in this neighborhood . . . and no part of that dream included a cellular tower five feet in front of my children,” Cumberland Road resident John McMahan told the council.
City officials and T-Mobile representatives had not yet established a date for the public meeting as of Thursday, but confirmed that construction planned for Monday would be pushed back.
Just like residents living behind the Foothill Boulevard office building where Sprint Nextel is planning to install 12 cellular antennas, Cumberland Road homeowners face an uphill battle. Permits for cellular towers are issued by the federal government and protected under the Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Federal law prevents local governments and commissions from considering potential ill health effects when receiving applications to install communications equipment.
