Cell tower expanded above city hall
Cell tower expanded above city hall
Yes, in fact, it is all about 5G
Several readers have asked what’s going on with the cell tower behind city hall, which has suddenly become much more visible than it was before.
“It's not a new antenna, but it is undergoing some upgrades,” said Steve Brown, the building inspector for the city of Sebastopol. “It's a Verizon tower that's been there for a number of years. They are replacing some modules on the antenna—they're actually pulling six off and replacing them with 12. It's basically a modification to allow 5G here in Sebastopol.”
The construction began three weeks ago and wrapped up this week.
Assistant City Planner John Jay said the modifications were approved by the planning department via an administrative approval (that is, it didn’t have to go through the planning department or city council).
Jay said that, as a part of this approval process, “It was reviewed by a telecommunication law firm as far as compliance with FTC guidelines.”
“I think the antennas and things have maybe been less noticeable in the past and now these ones are maybe a little bit more noticeable as far as what they look like,” Jay said.
A little more noticeable is right.
“That looks horrible rising up into the downtown horizon like that,” Brandon Pryor said in the Facebook group What’s Up Sebastopol.
On that same forum, Ted McDolan said: “They gonna cover it up as one of those fake trees or just leave it looking all industrial in the middle of downtown?”
In a separate conversation McDolan said, “If you ever drive out Fulton Road, there's an old fire tower on a farm by Urban Tree Farm that looks like it's been very cleverly and discreetly turned into a cell tower. It's a good look.”
City Manager Larry McLaughlin said there are currently no plans afoot in the city to disguise the expanded tower by turning it into a fake tree.
Interestingly, many people seemed never to have noticed the cell tower above downtown (nor had this author), until the recent changes brought it to their attention, but Jay said it’s definitely been there for years—and he provided a photograph as proof.
“It's funny how that stuff happens,” he said. “Like, it's there the whole time, and then as soon as one little detail changes on it, it's like, ‘Oh my God I've never seen that before.’”
