[Editor’s Note: On Monday evening at 7, concerned neighbors will host an informational meeting for the community regarding the proposed cell phone tower intended for the roof of the Cash ‘n Carry office products store, which is at the corner of Sawtelle Boulevard and Stevens Avenue. The meeting, where City Councilman Gary Silbiger is expected to speak, will be at 11235 Stevens Ave. See stopsawtelletower.com]
Activists say they have alerted and organized dozens, if not hundreds, of residents practically overnight.
Neighbors in South Culver City are mobilizing to try and halt the planned installation of a cell phone tower they believe will imperil the health of their families.
The first sign of an organized protest surfaced last Monday night when dozens from nearby neighborhoods poured into Council Chambers at City Hall and, in stentorian tones, pleaded for relief from the City Council.
Longtime residents Bryan Tjomsland, and Diane and Herb Rosenberg, said this morning that ever since a bombshell of a letter from the Planning Dept. arrived last Saturday, they have been playing an electronic symphony, warning hundreds by email of pending perceived dangers.
Rage and health concerns are exploding exponentially among their neighbors, they said.
By layers, they are gradually expanding their emergency alert campaign because they don’t know how much time they have to defeat the plans.
Their goal is to thwart a T-Mobile cell phone tower planned for the roof of the Cash ‘n Carry store at the corner of Sawtelle Boulevard and Stevens Avenue, just east of Sepulveda Boulevard.
The Rest of the Story
In the midst of whirlwind preparations for massive demonstrations, Mayor Andy Weissman inserted his calming voice this afternoon.
He believes their worries may be misplaced.
“We already have cell phone towers all over the city,” the Mayor said. “We are not introducing a new element to the community.”
Indeed, one of the “numerous” Culver City towers is directly across the street from Cash ‘n Carry, atop the Studio Village Shopping Center.
Another, a few blocks north, is at Braddock Drive and Sepulveda. A third is near the Culver Boulevard/Sepulveda intersection.
Nevertheless, in one of the activists’ earliest postings, directed at the families of nearby El Rincon School, the following was reported:
“There is growing scientific evidence about the health impacts of being close to cell phone base stations. Indications are that within several hundred yards of a transmitter, increased cancer and neurological problems are many times more prevalent, especially in growing children. While it will take decades for the cancer and other problems to occur in sufficient numbers to become irrefutable evidence, your children are going to be irradiated now. In the future, the danger will become a fact of life, like smoking and lung cancer (which also was challenged by the scientific establishment until 1964). But by then, we will be lucky to get even an apology. Unless we mobilize as a community to prevent the building of this tower, we will expose our children to potentially severe health risks!”
Some in the immediate neighborhood of Cash ‘n Carry are fretting over the brevity, and the Christmas holiday timing, of the public comment period, presently scheduled to end Dec. 28.
Residents are welcome to comment until the matter comes before the City Council, likely in February, Mr. Weissman said.
He added a crucial caveat:
A decade-old federal law forbids local governments from rejecting such a tower on health grounds. Essentially, it limits municipalities to zoning questions. This, of course, greatly improves the chances of local approval.
Mr. Weissman bracketed the chances of passage as “significantly better than 50-50.”
