No Cell Tower In Our Neighbhorhood
- by: Burbank Against Cell Towers In Our Neighborhood
- recipient: Burbank Water and Power
Mayor and City Council: CityCouncil@ci.burbank.ca.us
City Planning Board: Planning @ci.burbank.ca.us
Deputy City Planner Michael Forbes: MForbes@ci.burbank.ca.us
Deputy City Manager Michael Flad: mflad@ci.burbank.ca.us
Burbank Water & Power: RDavis@ci.burbank.ca.us,
MThompson@ci.burbank.ca.us, BMace@ci.burbank.ca.us,
JFletcher@ci.burbank.ca.us
St. Francis Xavier School and Church: sfxlancers@yahoo.com,
dickalbarano@earthlink.net, rrecker@sfxrccburbank.org,
sccta@charter.net
T-Mobile West wants to erect a wireless telecommunications facility at Brace Canyon Recreational Park (2800 Haven Way, Burbank, CA 91504). which is a community park in a residential area. The park is surrounded by homes, schools and a church. The proposed location for the facility is the northwest corner of the park, behind the baseball field, among trees. The actual property on which this facility would be located is owned by Burbank Water and Power.
The facility would include a 35-foot pole with antennas that would look like a pine tree, with equipment at the ground level next to the pole.
Several neighborhoods, cities, counties, schools, organizations and courts around the world are already saying "no" to wireless faciltiies like these, either because of:
1) Aesthetics: it doesn't look good or fit in with the environment and character of the neighborhood, and is a blight and eyesore;
2) Devaluation of real estate: who would want to live near a wireless antenna that emits radiation?
3) T-Mobile's already has adequate coverage in our area and no significant gaps in coverage
4) Health concerns from the radiation that these wireless facilties with antennae emit (although current law does not allow local governments to prohibit the location of cell phone towers based on adverse health effects; but that doesn't make it right, and we need our Congress to change the Telecommunications Act of 1996 that is outdated!).
The proposed tower location would be on land owned by Burbank Water and Power. T-Mobile's proposed lease agreement with Burbank Water and Power would be around $1,800 a month. We need to tell Burbank Water and Power it's not worth the damage to our community, aesthetically, monetarily, as well as our health and safety.
So let's join the Los Angeles School Board, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Pacific Palisade Community Council, the city of Glendale, Portland City Council, and various others communities and organizations who don't want cell towers in or near their schools, park and communities, and want the right to prohibit them or regulate their location. These groups have taken action because current federal laws and regulatory agencies have failed to keep up with technology and recent studies that reveal the harmful biological effects of wireless radiation on our bodies.
The City of Burbank Water and Power Department needs to do the same, and do the right thing.
Please sign the petition! Your signature on our petition will inform the City of Burbank Water and Power Department that we don't want them to enter a lease agreement with T-Mobile West at Brace Canyon park, and it will let them know that our community is more important than T-Mobile's proposed wireless facility.
Also please e-mail the City Officials at the top of this introduction. It's extremely important because they read them!
In addition to the Brace Canyon project, they're going to be considering allowing cell towers and antennas on private schools and churches in R-1 residential neighborhoods like ours, which means St. Francis School or St. Francis Church. We have to tell them why they should deny this application/request and preserve our quality of life here.
Please sign the petition if you are a resident of Burbank, CA, or if you have friends and family here, or use the park, or used to live here and care about what happens to residents in Burbank....
And go to our website at www.BurbankACTION.com or www.NoCellTowerInOurNeighborhood.com for more information.
Thank you for your vote, and support! Tell more of your friends and family to sign the petition and to visit our website! We need their help and support, too.
To: Burbank Water and Power Department
We, the undersigned, as concerned Burbank residents, ask Burbank Water and Power to not enter a lease agreement with T-Mobile West, which would result in a wireless facility and antennae at Brace Canyon Recreational Park on Burbank Water and Power Department property.
We join several neighborhoods, cities, counties, schools, organizations and courts around the world who are saying "no" to wireless facilities with antennae in their neighborhoods, for one or all of the following reasons:
- Aesthetics: Our neighborhood is comprised primarily of residential homes, two schools, a church and the Brace Canyon community recreational park. The proposed wireless facility with its antennae doesn't fit in with the environment and is incompatible with the character of our neighborhood. It would also set an unwelcomed precedent for our Burbank north estates neighborhood.
- Residents already have adequate cell phone and wireless data coverage in the area surrounding Brace Canyon recreational park, and so we don't need a new T-Mobile wireless antenna there. Even the T-Mobile website's Coverage map shows adequate ("best" and "good") coverage in this area, and no significant gaps.
- The devaluation of real estate. A study by Dr. Sally Bond has shown that a cell phone tower negatively affects the real estate values of homes surrounding it. Realtors in the Windsor Hills/View Park community also confirm this to be true, as evidenced in their recent letters submitted to County officials urging the County to not proceed with a proposed T-Mobile wireless antenna in their neighborhood. Burbank residents don't want decreased property value for homes and neighborhood, and we would hope the City wouldn't want the value of home properties and subsequent property tax revenue to decline, either.
- Residents, citing the precautionary principle and recent scientific studies, don't want the adverse health effects and increased cancer rates associated with wireless facilities and antennae. Children are especially vulnerable to absorbing electromagnetic and radio frequency radiation, and so the residents don't want this facility being placed so close to schools, homes, and a community park where children play, learn and live. For instance, the Burbank Unified School District Horace Mann Childcare Center and the St. Francis Xavier School and Church are attended by hundreds of babies, infants, toddlers, children and teenagers each weekday and Sunday. In addition, Brace Canyon recreational park with its playground, picnic areas, tennis and basketball courts, and softball/baseball field, attracts hundreds of children and their families each week.
- The City's Commitment and Pledge: When the City of Burbank Park, Recreation and Community Services Department celebrated its 80 years of service in 2005, it published a historical look at its parks. In conclusion, the authors wrote:
For eighty years, the City of Burbank Park, Recreation and Community Services Department has been committed to provide places to learn and play, places to be safe and secure, and places to create and imagine. Looking ahead, our Department will continue its commitment to play an important role in creating healthy community through diverse and innovative recreation programming. We will continue to provide well-maintained recreation facilities, programs, and activities designed to meet the recreational, social, and human services needs of the entire community. We will ensure that the quality of life is enhanced for each and every participant in all programs, classes, and activities, and provide parks and open space facilities that are beautiful, clean and safe.
Given the adverse health effects from cell towers and the fake pine tree look of the proposed facility, the City of Burbank will fail to live up to its commitment and pledge if its Water and Power Department moves ahead with this project.
For these reasons above, the Los Angeles School District, the Los Angeles School Board, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Pacific Palisade Community Council, the city of Glendale, Portland City Council, San Diego County, and other organizations, schools, and communities across and country and around the world have recently passed resolutions or said "no" to cell towers in or near their schools, parks homes, and communities, and want the right to regulate and prohibit them, and question the appropriateness of a proposed location. They have acted because current federal laws and regulatory agencies have failed to keep up with technology, relying on old, obsolete or incomplete data, and have failed to take into account recent studies that reveal the harmful health effects of wireless radiation on our bodies.
The City of Burbank and its Water and Power Department need to join these groups in saying "no" to wireless facilities and tower/antennae in their neighborhoods, schools and parks. They need to do the right thing.
Thus, we urge the Burbank Water and Power Department to not enter a lease agreement with T-Mobile West for a wireless facility and antennae at Brace Canyon park. By doing so, Burbank Water and Power will be telling us that our community is more important than the proposed T-Mobile wireless facility.
Thank you for your reading our letter and petition.
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