Letter to the Planning Commision

Here is my open letter to the Planning Commision and also City Council Members of the City of Sunnyvale. I didn't bother with the school district office and board people since they seemed to have already given their approval.


To the Planning Commision and City Council Members of the City of Sunnyvale,


We, the residents of the City of Sunnyvale in the Sunnyvale Middle School Community attest that we are in opposition to the construction of the AT&T cell phone tower at 1080 Mango Ave, around coordinates 37.359778, -122.052556‎ (+37° 21' 35.20", -122° 3' 9.20"). 


Our objections are based on the following:

• - It is wrong to allow the commercialization of school grounds. A school and its grounds are provided for the education and physical well-being of our children.

• - The tower provides no necessary service. When questioned, AT&T failed to explain the need for this tower. They said there have been no complaints of coverage in the area and indeed their online coverage map shows good coverage throughout the region.

• - A safety perimeter is required in the right field of the baseball diamond. A 10-foot tall perimeter fence is being planned to keep children away and it will be adorned with warning signs, which seems inappropriate for something located in a middle school playground and will radically change the character of the park-like setting around the big redwood trees.

• - The monopole faux pine tree is easily recognizable as man-made (as documented by a non-resident blogger passing by Bishop Elementary School) even from afar.

• - The support structures, safety perimeter fence and faux pine tree will reduce the property values of homes nearby, as documented by researches in the US and internationally and supported by letters from realtors in various cities. There will also be reduction in rent income in the two apartment buildings across from the cell tower site.

• - No long term studies. Due to the recent wide scale deployment of cell phone and its towers, there are no long term (40+ year) studies documenting their safety and there are no studies on children.

We understand that the federal courts have already ruled repeatedly that a municipality has no obligation to allow intrusive cell tower installations anywhere within its borders when other providers cover the area without such intrusive installations. Our research has shown that at least one other provider (Verizon) has demonstrated excellent customer service and coverage using existing towers.


We believe AT&T and other cellular service providers should be required to provide clear and non-convoluted written information to the parents of the students and all residents within a 300 meter radius, on all the following before proposing that any new cell towers be built, especially in single-family residential areas and K-12 schools:

• - be required to disclose all their existing and newly proposed cell towers.

• - be required to prove their current coverage gap.

• - be required to prove co-locating at an existing tower (even if of another company's) does not serve its purpose.

• - be required to find more appropriate locations in nearby commercial and industrial area, away from residential areas and schools.

• - be required to prove that all alternate locations have been exhausted and are inadequate.

We call upon the Sunnyvale City Planner and City Council to preserve the character and non-commercial setting of our schools for our children, to determine the legitimate need for this cell phone tower, to preserve the beauty and serenity of the park-like grass field and wooded area, and to preserve the property values of our homes by denying the construction of the AT&T cell phone tower at 1080 Mango Ave.


We also urge the City Planner and City Council Members to require that AT&T and other wireless service provider help the residents determine that the cell towers are indeed safe as those companies claim. This can be done by paying for a 20-year study by a group of independent psychologists to track the test scores and physical and psychological well-being of the students while they attend schools where cell towers or antennas are installed and to monitor the health of the teachers in the schools. We would also like the wireless service providers to switch off the towers temporarily if the study requires such actions.

We also ask that the City of Sunnyvale does not enter into long term contracts with AT&T and other wireless service providers. We urge a yearly lease or bi-yearly lease to have better control over the appropriate maintenance of the cell phone tower and site, and also the rights to decline renewal of lease should the employees or contractors of these wireless service providers display inappropriate conducts and/or evidence of harm or hazard surfaces in the future.