The Palo Alto City Council will hold a public hearing on Monday, Jan. 23 to consider resident appeals protesting an AT&T plan to install 19 new antennas on utility poles.

AT&T aims to improve the wireless provider’s geographic coverage and carrying capacity with the new antennas, but four residents have filed an official appeal with the city in opposition to the plan.

“The application by AT&T is just the first of many to come,” said resident Paula Rantz in her appeal. “I am asking that this application be denied until the city has come up with a comprehensive Wireless Master Plan for the installation of cell towers, taking into account the needs of the various providers and the overall impact to our community.”

Most residents in opposition expressed that the proposed benefits do not outweigh the aesthetic drawbacks, which not only include unsightliness but also possible harm to property values. Other concerns include worries about radiation emissions and preference for a citywide plan about the use of all utility poles.

Palo Alto Director of Planning Curtis Williams, whose office approved AT&T’s plan, feels that these issues have been adequately reconciled for the project to continue.

As far as visual effects are concerned, “Our architecture people have already looked at the utility poles, and they already have utility equipment on them,” Williams said. “They condition the equipment so that it will blend in more, and some of the equipment will be located up higher so it’s not right at eye level. Also, it is required at some of the poles to put some additional trees in to help screen it visually.”

Regarding radiation concerns, the federal government sets standards ensuring that emissions are healthy, and AT&T is far below the limit with its new plan, he said.

Furthermore, Williams commends the idea of having a Palo Alto wireless communications plan, but the city is limited in what it can do in that realm by federal regulations. It is, however, attempting to provide better information about where wireless providers can locate their antennas.

About 20 Palo Alto residents have contacted the city planning office in opposition to AT&T’s proposal, but around the same amount have notified the office of their support, said Williams.

“In Palo Alto, you’ve got a real high density of smart phone users and smart device users,” said AT&T spokesperson Lane Kasselman. “Because of that, you have more devices on our network, and it makes it harder for those folks to be able to get fast speed and maintain connection. In order to solve that, we must have more access points to connect to the network.”

After Monday’s public hearing, the city council will make a decision about whether AT&T will be allowed to carry out its installation plans. If the plans are approved, AT&T will fund the entire procedure and will also pay $1,500 per year to the city for the use of each utility pole. The installation process of the antennas is projected to take three to four months.

The 19 new antennas have been designated for East Palo Alto and downtown Palo Alto, so if they are installed, Stanford students’ wireless coverage will be minimally affected except for when they leave campus to visit surrounding neighborhoods.

The installations would be the first step in bigger plans AT&T has for the area, which include the establishment of 80 new antennas total, some of which will more directly affect those on the Stanford campus.

The company claims that if its plans are put into effect, users will have fewer dropped calls, faster data speeds and a noticeable improvement in connectivity.

“These specific antennas are called DAS [Distributed Antenna System], and they’re all around the Bay Area,” Kasselman said. “They’re a bunch of smaller antennas that cover a larger area without the need to put up a bigger antenna. This is a solution we use for neighborhoods where it isn’t really aesthetically pleasing to put in a large antenna, so we put in these smaller ones.”

AT&T says it has heard from thousands of Palo Alto residents on the record, saying that they are in support of the new plans.

Contact Sarah Moore at [email protected].