Cell phone antenna is nothing unusual

June Casagrande

City Hall has been fielding phone calls from a handful of

residents concerned about work to install a cell phone antenna at

Community Church Congregational.

“We’ve gotten some calls from neighbors saying, ‘My gosh. How can

you let this happen?’” Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff

said.

Actually, he said, many churches and other businesses in the city

already have cell phone antennas built into their structures.

“The city doesn’t have the right to say whether someone can put a

cell antenna on commercial, nonresidential land,” Kiff said. “We can

regulate it, but we can’t prohibit it.”

The Federal Communications Commission sets the rules for cellular

antennas, he said.

Community Church Congregational got its permit for installing the

cellular equipment before the city’s telecommunications ordinance was

in place, which is why neighbors have not received notice that work

would begin.

Rev. Chip Fisher assured neighbors that the work would not change

the look of the church at 611 Heliotrope Ave.

“We are monitoring to make sure that everything will look the

same,” Fisher said.

Fisher would not say how much the church was being paid to house

the cellular antenna, but such arrangements can mean tens of

thousands of dollars a year in revenue, depending on location and

other factors.

For example, Cingular Wireless last year offered the city $40,000

a year to install an antenna on city property at the intersection of

Coast Highway and Superior Avenue.