AT&T Asks for 9 Cell Towers in Kensington – Feb. 26 Meeting

AT&T Mobility has submitted applications to construct cell phone towers on existing utility poles at nine locations in Kensington.

Approval of the applications is up to planners for Contra Costa County, which regulates cell phone antennas in unincorporated areas, including Kensington.

The Kensington Municipal Advisory Council, which has been asked by the county's Department of Conservation and Development to provide comment on the applications, will the review the proposals at its Feb. 26 meeting at 7 p.m. at the Kensington Community Center.

Members of the public can provide comments at the meeting and also can submit comments directly to Francisco Avila, Project Planner, by email at francisco.avila@dcd.cccounty.us or by regular mail at the Department of Conservation and Development, Community Development Division, 30 Muir Rd., Martinez, CA 94553-4601.

Two county representatives will attend the meeting and answer any questions about the applications, according to Aruna Bhat, Deputy Director-Community for the Department of Conservation and Development.

Five of the nine applications were filed on Jan. 14, and the remaining four were filed Jan. 24. They can be accessed on Contra Costa County Supervisor John Gioia's website and viewed at the Kensington Library. 

Each application calls for two panel antennas to be added to an extension on existing utility poles in Kensington. The tallest would be at 110 Ardmore Rd., where the height of the existing 44-foot pole would rise to 54 feet. The largest addition to an existing pole would be at 248 Grizzly Peak Boulevard, where the existing 26-foot pole would almost double in height, increasing to 50 feet.

Here are the addresses and changes in pole height in the applications from AT&T:

Existing
pole height

Affected local agencies are typically asked to provide comments within 30 days of the date that the applications are filed, but the county recognizes that meeting schedules and the complexity of some applications can make the 30-day deadline unrealistic and will accept comments after 30 days, Bhat said.

The 30-day deadline for Kensington council's comments on the first five applications would have been Feb. 14 and the deadline on the remaining four would be Feb. 24. The panel's meeting, however, is not until Feb. 26.

"The County will accept the KMAC (Kensington Municipal Advisory Council) comments even if received after the 30 day deadline noted on the Agency Comment Request Form," Bhat told Patch by email.

"Members of the public can submit their comments in writing anytime during the processing of this application," she said. "Staff prefers to get the comments early on since this gives us an opportunity to address their comments."

No date has been set for the county's decision on the applications, she said.

An application by AT&T Mobility to place cell phone antennas on an office building on San Pablo Avenue in Albany has provoked a five-year community battle and a federal lawsuit. After earlier being rejected by the city's Planning & Zoning Commission and the City Council, the application was approved by the planning commission on Jan. 17. An appeal was filed Jan. 30, which sends the issue to the City Council again.

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We'd like to know your thoughts on the AT&T proposal for the Kensington cell phone towers. You can tell us in the comments.