Monterey residents rise up against proposed cell facilities in their neighborhood.

When the city of Monterey held a Zoning Administrator meeting on Oct. 5 – typically, such meetings don’t attract much attention – about 80 residents from the Monte Vista neighborhood came to speak up about 13 proposed cellular facilities that would be placed in their midst.

Todd Bennett, a senior planner with the city, says most of the comments were against the new facilities, which are called “small cell facilities.” They differ from the larger cell towers currently serving the neighborhood – which are on hilltops or ridgelines – in that they aren’t as big and can be placed on utility poles in close proximity to homes or schools.

The Planning Commission will vote on the proposed facilities, but the issue will first be discussed at a community meeting later this month.

The applications are the first of their kind in a residential neighborhood in Monterey, and put the city in a delicate spot: Federal telecommunications law precludes the city from rejecting the towers due to perceived health or environmental impacts, and state law limits the city’s ability to reject them if they’re in the public right of way – in this case, on existing utility poles – and forces the city to focus on aesthetics and location as grounds for denial.

Monte Vista resident Susan Nine, a retired attorney and teacher, is among those in the neighborhood rallying against the new facilities, which would serve Verizon customers. Nine has been doing legal research to bolster her case, and the burden of proof, she says, is on the applicant – a company called ExteNet Systems, which would lease the facilities to Verizon – to prove there’s an existing coverage gap. She and other residents are amassing evidence Nine says will show that there is no such gap.

“We’re getting the sense maybe the city is ambivalent about what to do,” she says.

Monterey has retained Los Angeles-based Telecom Law Firm P.C. to help navigate the issue.