From: Jennifer LaPorta
To: City Council Public Comments
Subject: [EXTERNAL] 244 Colgan Av Telecommunications Tower Date: Friday, March 15, 2024 9:28:49 AM
Dear Santa Rosa City Council,
I am asking you to DENY the plans for this cell phone (macro) tower. AT&T never proved that it is needed to fill a gap in coverage. They did not provide any data to prove this need. They only said they needed it. Proper data would include drive by records and dropped call records from an independent source.
I brought each of you a small informative booklet called Wireless Radiation about 6 weeks ago. I gave them to the clerk at the City Mgr office. I emailed you (at this email address) about 3 weeks ago to see if you've read the booklets. I got no reply from any of you. Please educate yourselves. You don't need to rubber stamp everything the Planning Commission approves. check this website (the science tab)
https://ehtrust.org/
Sincerely,
Jennifer LaPorta, BS Environmental Health
safetech4santarosa.org
Santa Rosa 95407
From: RICHARD BOYD
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] comments on item 16.3 at March 26 meeting Date: Monday, March 18, 2024 10:13:50 AM
Attachments: Dear Santa Rosa Council Members.docx
Dear Council Members,
Attached are my comments regarding the Appeal of the Verizon Cell Tower Project at Colgan Ave. I strongly support the Appeal, and oppose the Project.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Richard N. Boyd
March 18, 2024
Santa Rosa City Council Members
[email protected]
Re: March 26 meeting.
Agenda item #16.3, Verizon Cell Tower Project Appeal
Dear Santa Rosa City Council Members,
I am writing to address your consideration of the Appeal of the Verizon Cell Tower Project to build a twelve antenna macro tower at the Colgan Ave. site. I believe strongly that this Project should be rejected.
At the bottom of this issue is safety. The radiation that this tower would emit would be dangerous. Let me elaborate, since this is not often addressed. The Federal Communications Commission, in all its wisdom, specified the Maximum Permissible Exposure of electromagnetic radiation for thirty and six minute intervals. Note that their statement has two components, an exposure rate and an exposure time, but the product of these, the exposure, is the same for the two limits. And it is this exposure that has been shown in thousands of scientific papers to produce harmful biological effects at values orders of magnitude below the FCC MPE.
However, the FCC avoided discussing longer times, which creates a potentially horrific situation for someone working an eight hour shift, or even living, in a high radiation environment. This is where the proposed Colgan Ave. tower becomes especially objectionable.
The workers at Costco, located seventy feet from the proposed tower, will receive a dose that is not possible to determine accurately from the Waterson analysis provided to the Santa Rosa Planning Board, but it is certainly much higher than the 11.8 percent value indicated as the average MPE over the area considered. It is surely higher than 50 percent of the MPE, more likely 70 to 80 percent since the radiation tends to be higher near the source (although lobing does have an effect). Giving Verizon the benefit of the doubt, I’ll assume that the fraction of the MPE at that location is 50%. Since an 8 hour shift has 16 half hour segments, a Costco employee working an 8 hour shift will receive 8 times the MPE. How many of the employees will be able to work their full 8 hour shift without developing some of the symptoms related to excessive RFR exposure? If you approve this Project, we’ll find out! What about the people living in the apartments opposite Colgan Ave? There it is possible to guess from the Waterson analysis what their exposure will be: 5% of the FCC MPE. That means they will hit the FCC limit in 10 hours. Since they live there, however, they will certainly have exceeded the FCC MPE by a large factor at some point, surely within a few days.
The safety issues should make you want to prevent this tower from ever happening.
Unfortunately, you are not allowed to object to the Verizon Project on the basis of health effects, however obvious they may be. So let me give you some things you can use to reject the proposal. It can be rejected on the basis of aesthetics. Verizon didn’t show a picture of what the installation will look like from the apartments on the other side of Colgan Ave. The reason is obvious. From that perspective the 69 foot tower will loom over the 30 foot Costco roof like a huge vulture. That’s got to be aesthetically pleasing only to another vulture.
However, there are many other reasons to oppose this Project that can be used legally to reject it, e.g., Verizon’s failure to give evidence of dropped calls and their failure to include the two Verizon towers half a mile from the proposed location in their analysis.
Please approve the Appeal of your previous approval of this Project, and finally reject this Project.
Yours sincerely,
Richard N. Boyd, PhD (physics), Professor Emeritus
From: Melody Stewart
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Cc: Melody Stewart
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Verizon cell tower #16.3 March 26 City Council Meeting. Verizon Cell Tower Appeal Date: Monday, March 18, 2024 4:51:16 PM
I live at 133 Colgan Ave, Santa Rosa, CA 95404. As an artist I am very sensitive to the environmental beauty or lack thereof in my neighborhood.
At 80, i find the disruptive and intrusive design of the proposed cell tower to be shocking. The idea of walking in my community faced with such an eye sore is heartbreaking.
In addition, there is no evidence that any gap in coverage exists to justify this tower.
Please keep this tower out of our neighborhood. Thank you Sincerely,
Melody Stewart
From: Jennifer LaPorta
To: CityCouncilListPublic
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Fwd: 244 Colgan Av macro-cell tower Date: Tuesday, March 19, 2024 4:52:19 PM
Did you change your email address? please send my comment to all City Council members. ---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Jennifer LaPorta < >
Date: Thu, Feb 29, 2024 at 6:38 PM
Subject: 244 Colgan Av macro-cell tower
To: <[email protected]
>
Dear Santa Rosa City Council,
Did you get my booklets re Wireless technology risks?
I brought them to the City Mgr office a few weeks ago.
One for each of you to educate yourselves prior to voting on our appeal of the Planning Commission's approval for the dangerous cell phone tower at the above location.
Yes it's dangerous due to the EMFs emitted.
Keep in mind the FCC sets EMF emission limits, yet not a single scientist is on the FCC.
FCC is run by industry
insiders and is a captured agency. Their regulatory standards are 25 years old and based on faulty "science" if you can call it that. Their limits are among the highest in the world.
Please READ the booklets. They are short and informative. let me know you received your booklet
please
see you on 3/26
Jennifer LaPorta, BS Environmental Health
Rutgers U
Santa Rosa