October 13, 2005

Cingular Wireless erects new cell site in Almaden park, surprising neighbors

Site’s turn-on is total turn-off for Oakglen Way residents

By Sheila Sanchez
Staff Writer

Cingular Wireless’ motto “raising the bar” has taken on a new meaning in a quiet Almaden Valley neighborhood where residents are angry with the company for raising a new cell site.

Oakglen Way residents Michael La Marca, Dick Stevens and Vince Piazzisi are some of the neighbors who live by Jeffrey Fontana Park who want city officials to revise an ordinance to restrict the proliferation of cell sites. Photo courtesy Vince Piazzisi

The voice-and-data network giant has been building the cell site at Jeffrey Fontana Park on the corner of Meridian Avenue and Oakglen Way.

And the surreptitious way in which neighbors say the company installed the structure goes against its values that claim customers are highly regarded and treated with respect.

The cell site consists of three rectangular-shaped antennas mounted on top of an existing 110-feet-tall electrical transmission tower. Cables connect the antennas to the ground equipment enclosure.

“Everyone thinks it’s a restroom. That’s how big it is,” complained Art Gillmore, an Oakglen Way resident whose house looks directly at the cell site. “They need to understand that they just can’t pop these things up in residential areas.”

He added: “I have a cell phone. Everyone has a cell phone. They’re a fact of life, but you’ve got to have a policy in place to locate these things and you’ve got to look at the impact on the environment.”

Other neighbors who live near the park are complaining that Cingular never notified them of the installation and that the structure will decrease the value of their million-dollar homes.

Cingular Wireless spokeswoman Lauren Garner said the company is just trying to provide customers with quality wireless service and that it needed to add capacity to the cell site to enhance service due to an increase in demand. She said the company is working with city officials to meet the community’s needs.

Garner said after construction began on the cell site, Cingular heard from several residents and met with them on Oct. 4 to discuss their concerns. Based on their feedback, the company has revised the plans for the style of a new redwood fence and landscaping around the cell site.

In addition, city parks and recreation officials asked Cingular if its workers could use the dirt from the site location. Per their request, Cingular piled the dirt in the park for the department’s use. “Cingular wants to be a good neighbor to the local residents,” Garner said. “Cingular works hard to meet consumers’ demand for coverage while balancing aesthetics and other city considerations involved. The siting process is not random and Cingular Wireless works tirelessly to offer customers the best wireless service possible and meet communities’ needs.”

Cingular began digging the morning of Sept. 19. Residents were upset with the pile of dirt excavated and left under some oak trees. They also say the company failed to notify the city’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department. “Nobody knew anything about it,” Gillmore said.

An existing cell site in the area, contained within the footprint of a Pacific Gas and Electric tower, gave residents headaches in the fall of 2003. They complained to the San Jose City Council then and were told that permits had been issued and that it wouldn’t expand any further than the existing site.

PG&E owns the tower and the small parcel of land where the cell site is located. Cingular is leasing space on the PG&E parcel of land to erect the cell site.

Vincent Piazzisi, another resident of Oakglen Way, said two years ago neighbors complained against having a cell site on the tower. “We thought this would be a pretty ugly looking thing,” he said.

Residents are also outraged that the park’s aesthetics, with its beautiful trees, will be destroyed when the cell site is finished and covered by the fence.

This tower is being used by Cingular Wireless to turn on a cell site at Jeffrey Fontana Park on the corner of Meridian Avenue and Oakglen Way. Photo by Sheila Sanchez

“It’s big. People come up to me who walk around the park and they’re mad that they would put a cell site right in the middle of a park,” Gillmore said.

Dick Stevens, another resident of Oakglen Way, said, “It’s bad enough that they’re putting this in without notifying anybody, but we’re very concerned on a going forward basis for District 10 and the rest of the districts in San Jose to stop the proliferation of cell sites without any notification or discussions in residential areas.”

The residents called Councilwoman Nancy Pyle’s office immediately after they noticed the cell site going up to express concern. They want Pyle to revise an ordinance passed last year that allows existing cell sites to be expanded with an administrative approval by the city’s planning department without notifying the surrounding neighborhoods.

“We’re worried about the future,” said Piazzisi.

For her part, Pyle said, “None of us want to wake up in the morning and see our environment changed radically. That’s what happened in this case. I think personal rights were violated. It was an environmental change of substance and this is something that we have to be very cautious about. We need to make policy and changes that will prohibit this from happening in the future.”

Pyle said she wants to revise the current ordinance so “people don’t have this kind of surprise” in the future.