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At the 8 June 2006 hearing, the Planning Commission officially announced Sprint's withdrawal of its application for use of the Sunset Reservoir as a telecommunications facility site. We would like to enlist the neighborhood's support in asking the PUC to permanently remove the Sunset Reservoir as a possible site for future antennas. Thank you.
About a month ago residents within 500 feet of 27th/28th Avenues and Quintara streets in the mid-Sunset received notice that Sprint Nextel had submitted a proposal in 2005 to install antennas, transmitters, transmission lines, utilities, and a 60 foot antenna tower about 20 feet east of a public sidewalk used by elders sitting to rest and watch the view, and where Lincoln High School students and neighbors run and walk for physical education. About 50 of us showed up at the Outreach meeting moderated by a consulting firm that Sprint had retained.
Though a Sprint Nextel representative co-moderated the meeting he did not give us a business card or contact information. We peppered both gentlemen with questions but only some were answered. They ran out of the reports Sprint had hired other consultant firms to prepare for them. Some of these had been produced in 2005, and should have been distributed to us long ago, putting us at an immediate time disadvantage with the Sprint "steamroller." The reps hadn't carefully read these reports . They had zero copies of the environmental study to distribute, instead posting a few 3 ft. x 4 ft. glossy pictures from the report at the back of the room. This sub-optimal scenario resulted in ~50 people signing a petition to object to this cell/telecommunications siting. We spoke to neighbors and found out that even those living outside the 500 ft. radius were opposed to the site as well, whether or not they had a Sprint cell phone, but the general feeling was "You can't fight City Hall."
Undaunted, we met at Rick's Restaurant on Taraval and formed a steering committee. Soon 900 people had signed our petition (we estimate this is well over 1,000 now). Since then we've had e-mails ignored and not read thoroughly or correctly. We've only been able to get some documents from Sprint, only if one attended the Outreach meeting or had an email address. The layer of insulation endemic in hiring a PR firm has buffered Sprint, consumed our time and made information more inaccessible. Additional e-mails from us had to be resent many times. Even a simple request to allow us entry to view the exact antenna spot generated a feeble response and resulted in no action. Then at the Planning Commission hearing 25 May 2006, the matter was rescheduled for 8 June 2006. Since there were about 50 of us, most, non-English speakers, it took a while for the realization that the Commission had asked us to leave, to sink in. But leave we did, and some of us decided to visit District 4 Supervisor Fiona Ma's office (in photo below).
Dropping by Fiona Ma's office while Aide Frances Hsieh lends a sympathetic ear
Looking at past Planning Commission meeting minutes it becomes evident that the vast majority of site applications by mobile telecommunications companies are approved at Commission hearings, despite citizen objections based on health risks. Thus on our petitions we stated objections based largely on non-health issues, like lack of need for cell antennas here, PERCEPTION of health risks, lack of information from Sprint, and deleterious environmental impact in this residential zone neighborhood, comprising a large number of seniors who are not in the techno-minority that Sprint is targeting. 95% of 200 cell phone users polled told us that their cell coverage in this area is already very good. We found that the S.F. Board of Supervisors and the Planning Department have done a fair job in producing viable siting guidelines that are mindful of public concern and environmental impact, while continuing to promote commerce in San Francisco and comply with federal law.
Since the Sprint Nextel application has been withdrawn we have discontinued petition drives and asked Mr. Garrett (Gary) Dowd, Director of Real Estate Services, PUC, to consider permanently removing from consideration the Sunset Reservoir as a possible telecommunications site, in a letter hand-delivered to his office on 12 June 2006. We notified Supervisor Fiona Ma's office about our request (and thanked her) in this letter.
In the neighborhood's endeavor to attain a permanent change of policy, if you could send us your sample letters, we'd appreciate them. Please click on the Contact tab at the top of this page.Thanks.