Corona del Mar Today

Mayor to Antenna Company: Plans to Add Poles "Offensive"

A company's plans to add five freestanding poles in front of Crystal Cove State Park, the Cameo Highlands neighborhood and other locations along East Coast Highway "is about as offensive to as many people in the city as it could possibly be," Mayor Keith Curry said at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

The City Council voted unanimously to deny the company permission to add the poles.

Officials with the NextG Networks company declined to comment after the meeting. They had testified that they would prefer to use existing city poles for the antennas they use to boost connectivity among wireless service providers, but they want to pay $500 per year, not the city's fee, $1,500 per month.

A few residents of Cameo Highlands testified about health concerns from the antennas that would be added to the poles.

"I do know of problems from this kind of stuff," said Linda Primrose, who described herself as a "little grandma in tennis shoes." She carried an oversized purse that she said was filled with 20 years' of research on the health impact of low-energy emissions, including cancer clusters, immune system issues and more.

Most people, who testified, however, were upset with the idea of adding 30-foot poles to the community.

Crystal Cove State Park Supt. Todd Lewis told the Council that park friends were working to remove poles, but NextG added one near the Shake Shack and shouldn't be allowed to add another in the vicinity of a historic state park.

"I can't think of a more inappropriate place to place a pole," he said. "It does have a direct negative impact on the coastal viewpoint."

In the end Curry said he agreed, telling company officials, "I find that the eagerness of your firm to put poles in the shadow of Crystal Cove Park and at El Moro to be particularly insensitive and incompatible with our community values…It seems to me we're offering you the option to co-locate on city poles. You just don't want to pay the money to do so, and perhaps the only thing more flawed than your business plan is your public relations strategy."

After the council's vote, the audience clapped and cheered, and many of the residents who testified stopped to shake hands and thank the park superintendent.

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