Last-minute help from Santa Barbara County First District Supervisor Roy Lee Monday night gave opponents of a Verizon Wireless telecommunications project in Carpinteria more time.
Lee told the Carpinteria Planning Commission that the county is open to putting the project on a county-owned building in the area.
The commission on Monday faced a looming deadline for the proposal from Verizon Wireless to put wireless telecommunication structures on top of and at the back of a privately owned, multi-tenant building on the 900 block of Linden Avenue in downtown Carpinteria.
That building is home to a few commercial businesses, including Sushi Teri Restaurant, Whimsy Antiques, and Pacific Health Foods.
Its addresses include 912, 944, 954, 962 and 970 Linden avenue.
If the commissioners didn’t take action on the project Monday night, approval would be effectively granted per Spectrum Act regulations, which limit the time state and local government bodies have to approve or deny wireless communications projects.
Under the current plans, three individual antenna equipment installations, each four feet wide and six feet, five inches in height, would be placed on the roof of the building.
Two antennas would be located on either side of Carpinteria’s historic clock tower, and one on the southeast corner of the building.
Each antenna structure would be painted to match the existing stucco and colors of the tower and building, city staff said.
Plans also include placing an 8-foot-tall wooden fence equipment enclosure at the back of the building, on top of an accessory structure; one dedicated parking spot for an emergency generator truck; two secured 8-foot-tall rooftop access ladders to access the equipment closure and the roof; and the installation of utility connectors along Cactus Lane.
As part of the proposal, Verizon would also repair the historic clock, which has been broken for some time, and paint it, under recommendations from the Carpinteria Architectural Review Board.
The wireless telecommunication structures would help address a gap in Verizon’s coverage in the downtown Carpinteria area, which draws a lot of foot traffic, Verizon representatives told the commission.
But the project has faced heavy backlash since its introduction early last year.
Carpinterians at various city meetings have argued that putting wireless communications infrastructure with radio frequency energy on top of a building that is home to Pacific Health Foods would harm both the customers and the workers.
(The World Health Organization has said that adverse health effects are not linked to wireless technology exposure. )
On Monday, Pacific Health Foods owners Nathan and Whitney Noll, supported by more than a dozen community members, once again argued that putting telecommunications structures on their roof would harm the business and the area.
“(The Nolls) have been in our community and helping us for so long…” said speaker Mary Doiron, who has lived in Carpinteria since 1981. “I have concerns about radio frequency coming through their ceilings.”
The Nolls also told the commission that parts of the building — including the accessory structure where Verizon would put the wooden fence enclosure — are structurally unsound.
They said putting a permanent ladder on the back of the store would additionally affect how they get their product into the store via pallets.
“Our customers shop with us because they trust us,” Nathan said. “That trust is grounded in shared values (…) The proposed telecommunications installation is a direct and irreversible risk to our business.
“While we understand that regulatory agencies rely on established science and compliance standards, the reality of operating a community-based retail business is different.”
He said their customers are not “persuaded by regulatory assurances alone, particularly when it comes to visible 5G or telecommunications structures.”
Whitney said the main roof has “not been properly maintained” and “has only been patched over time.” She said local contractors have told her that it needs to be fully replaced.
“Horizontal cracks, exceeding four feet in length, have developed in the cinder block wall above the back corner office windows,” Whitney said, explaining this is near where one of the antennas would be located.
“These cracks are deep enough that during rain events, water penetrates into my office.”
The commission on Monday seemed hesitant to support a project.
Commission staff said the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) establishes the levels of safe emissions, and that denying a project purely because radio frequency emissions exist “is not within our purview.”
Commissioner John Moyer said he didn’t want to “enter into the argument” about radio frequencies, but added that it appears putting those antennas up in that area would be detrimental to Pacific Health Foods.
“A certain percentage of their clientele will probably stop going there,” Moyer said. “How do you compensate for that?”
Verizon Wireless representative Celeste Magennis told the commission the company looked at 13 different sites around Carpinteria for its new structures starting in Spring 2024, evaluating each based on availability and compatibility.
She said they reached out to the owners of those properties multiple times in person and via letter, or by phone and email if they had those contacts.
Some properties were found to be too close to existing telecommunications structures or had roofs that wouldn’t work; other property owners simply weren’t interested or didn’t respond.
Verizon settled on the commercial building on the 900 block of Linden Avenue after the landlord, a private citizen, showed interest.
She also said, in response to concerns about the building’s safety, they did submit a structural analysis.
After Magennis showed the public and the commission the full list of 13 sites — in response to questions about the thoroughness of Verizon’s research — commissioners and public commenters zeroed in on one property that Verizon had dismissed: the Veterans Hall at 941 Walnut Ave.
It’s a county-owned property that the city of Carpinteria rents.
Magennis told the commission that attempts to contact the county about that building had been unsuccessful.
She did not specify who was contacted, but she did say that Verizon staff may have stopped trying once they found another suitable location: in this case, the building on the 900 block of Linden Avenue.
But in a sudden twist of events, hours into the meeting, Supervisor Lee — a Carpinteria resident and former Carpinteria City Council member — stepped in.
(Lee had been in attendance at the meeting earlier during a separate item on the commission’s agenda. He joked that he was “in his pajamas, ready to go to bed” when he came back.)
He told the commission that while his office did not previously receive any queries from Verizon, the county “is open to having the cell tower at our facility on Walnut (Avenue).”
“We would be more than happy to work with Verizon and the community to make sure we bring before the best project possible and the safest project possible for everyone,” Lee told the commission.
“Here’s a solution here … I don’t want to tell you what to do, but this is going to plant the seed there.”
Multiple studies will still have to be done to see if the Walnut Avenue site is suitable, city staff said, but they did point out that a now-defunct telecommunications facility had once been housed there.
The commissioners ultimately voted 5-0 for a two-month project continuance after Verizon agreed to suspend the deadline.
If Verizon and the county are unable to reach some sort of agreement or commitment within two months, the project will return to the Planning Commission in April — right back where it started when the meeting began on Monday.
“We have been on this project for quite some time, and we do want to see it progress further,” Magennis told the commission after consulting with other Verizon representatives.
“In two months, we should be able to get, with (Supervisor Lee’s) eagerness, to know if we are able to move forward.”