By Jessyka Heredia
May 30, 2024 (Lemon Grove) — 
On May 20, the Lemon Grove City Council heard from local resident Jason Sundberg, who filed an appeal to reconsider allowing a 70-foot cell tower disguised as a broadleaf tree that will include 12 panel antennas and nine remote radio units. The tower is proposed by AT&T at 6970 San Miguel Avenue on the Christian Church of Lemon Grove’s lot.
AT&T says it intends to increase cell service in the area by installing the tower. AT&T’s proposal includes a 252 square foot CMU block (Concrete Masonry Unit) enclosure, seven Virginia Live Oak trees, 2 sycamore trees and various shrubs and ground cover to help the design blend into the neighborhood.
Sundberg stated he is not opposed to a cell tower in general, but rather the design and impacts on property values and potential for environmental impacts. “I want good cell coverage for everyone as it’s important for our everyday lives,” Sundberg said the design leaves a negative perception of the community.
Sundberg stated that the planning commission was not presented with any other designs other than the broadleaf tree version. Sundberg offered other design ideas such as a steeple or bell tower.
Sundberg stated, “Major telecommunication companies are indifferent to the concerns of our community and will propose the least expensive, and easiest solution to their coverage issues without regard for the impact on our community and its protected resources.”
This project was approved by the planning commission on April 22 with a few conditional uses such as increasing the density of branches, better concealment of antennas by adding no less than three feet of branching beyond the antennas, canopy must have natural slope for a broadleaf tree and the trunk and branches to be covered in a three-dimensional bark cladding from top to bottom of the tree.
Sundberg explained, “The visual impact of the proposed 70-foot-tall tower is considered a significant aesthetic impact to the community. There are existing trees or buildings within one mile that come close to this height, The proposed tree plantings are slow growing and would not reach maturity for over 30 years”. Sundberg also noted that the trees listed to plant in order to camouflage the structure are not native to San Diego and will struggle in our environment.
Sunberg claimed, “It will decrease the desirability of the neighborhood. The adjacent properties could see reduction in value of up to 20%.” Sundberg said there are 30 properties around the project that could be impacted by a reduction in property value, which would in turn reduce the amount of property taxes collected by the cash strapped city as a result.
Sundberg also noted, “This is also a matter of equity. You would never see a structure like this going in La Jolla or any other more well to do neighborhoods.”
Harlod Thomas, the spokesperson for AT&T and the applicant, started off by explaining that this project is needed to increase cell service that is specialized for our first responders. Thomas also said it is a benefit “to the neighbors and residences” in the San Miguel area of Lemon Grove.
Thomas assured the Council that this tower will look different than previously approved cell towers of years past. Thomas stated, “Why we chose the broadleaf tree is that back on March 27 of last year, when we had first received our comments from the city of Lemon Grove, they asked us to consider a palm tree and a pine tree because they knew that we were going to be presenting a Broadleaf. They wanted to see other aspects because they’ve seen other designs and they needed this to be different.”
This is why the planning commission was not shown other designs because city staff preferred the broadleaf over the palm or pine tree designs.
Thomas explained, “What we are trying to do is bridge the gap and to be able to provide adequate coverage that the community deserves and what it needs.”
Thomas stated that as far as finding a different location, they did look for alternate locations such as the billboard by Burger King and the 94 freeway, however, there simply isn’t a suitable place to give the targeted area better cell coverage due to distance and height.
When it came to the questions about safety, Thomas explained, “The city of Lemon Grove had requested that we engage in best management practices, some of those being the runoff area, and sediment control.” Thomas noted that since the tower is having batteries, it’s not going to be making any noise. “We had a third party run that study.” Thomas says, adding that the applicant did submit an RF (Radio Frequency) report to the city and the project was deemed safe.
Councilmembers Alysson Snow and Jennifer Mendoza had to recuse themselves due to living in the neighborhood where the tower is proposed. This meant that all three remaining councilmembers would need to come to a unanimous agreement or the appeal would automatically fail.
Councilmember Liana LeBaron asked Thomas how many cell towers were already in Lemon Grove. Thomas responded, “There is a total of eleven.”
When LeBaron asked for clarification about how many AT&T towers specifically were in the city, Thomas estimated, “I want to say it is a little over 10.” When Councilmember LeBaron tried to get a clearer answer, the Mayor mentioned the council procedure limiting councilmembers to only two questions and moved on to Councilmember Gastil.
Councilmember George Gastil asked, “What would we be missing as a community if we didn’t do this tower? I’m actually intrigued with the billboard by Burger King. No one thinks that can make it look worse.”
Thomas explained that the Burger King billboard location is about 0.7 miles away. “One of our biggest things is that our target area is not over there,” he added.
Mayor Racquel Vasquez asked, “Once the facility is built, what kind of mitigations will be put in place to make sure that area is environmentally sustainable?”
Thomas referred to best management practices andsaid the city would have to approve anything before the project is finalized.
The City Council voted unanimously 3-0, with Mendoza and Snow recused, to send this item back to the planning commission for re-consideration.