About this Awful, Unfair Project

Verizon is proposing to place a 90 foot cell tower on the property located at 4131 Birdseye View Lane. The tower will be on the lake side of their property, which means it will loom over the lake and park and create a jarring visual blight in our rural community. This blight will create a significant impact on our property values. There are also real and significant health concerns.

Verizon should find a different location that is NOT in a residential neighborhood with a rural character, and that does not intrude on a unique recreational resource like Lake Arrowbee.

The images below show just how much the cell tower will impact the view Arrowbee Lake and Park.

Project Documents

The project is well advanced.  There are full site plans available on the El Dorado County web site which you can see by clicking here.  If you want the PDF of the site plans, contact us here to request it. (It's too large to load on this website.)  Other documents are:
  1. Biological resource assessment, click here.
  2. Report on RF-EMF (radiofrequency electromagnetic fields) exposure, click here. **Note this is NOT a study of ELF-EMF (Extremely Low Frequency electromagnetic fields). They assess the thermal impacts only, not the non-thermal impacts. To learn about the difference, and why this is a problem, click here.
  3. Noise study, click here.  The heat exchangers run continuously. The diesel generator only runs once a week for testing.
  4. Full application packet, click here.

Approval Process

Verizon is seeking a Special Use Permit from the El Dorado County Planning Commission.

Click here to see the letter sent to potentially interested agencies by the El Dorado County Community Development Agency. 

The only opportunity for us--the people most impacted by this unfair and hurtful project--to intervene will be at a public hearing to be held by the Planning Commission. We will post more information about the hearing when we learn more. We have been told it will be probably be in January.

Cell tower projects almost always pursue and receive what's known as a "Negative Declaration" meaning they don't have to do an environmental impact analysis.  For an example of what a Neg Dec looks like for a recent local cell tower project, click here.

​Special Use Permit rules are here.

Q&A About the Project

How tall will the cell tower be?
It will be 90 feet, meaning it will be about 3 times taller than the surrounding oak trees.

What will the tower look like?
It will be what they call a "monopine" which means they'll try, and fail, to make it look like a pine tree.  It will look fake, and you will be able to see the microwave dishes and the antennas. Also, we don't have that type of pine here.  We have a few random foothill pines (digger).  We live in oaks, so this "tree" will stand out terribly, not just because of height but because of how it won't blend in.

Are there health risks?
Yes.  There is overwhelming evidence that cell towers increase the risk of cancer and other serious disease and bodily harm. The have radiation emissions called radio frequency radiation or RF-EMF. While the industry claims there is no health impact, it is in their best interest to ignore and down-play the evidence. The fact of the matter is that the FCC only sets thresholds for thermal effects of  RF-EMF.  They DO NOT set thresholds for non-thermal RF-EMF, which can affect immune system functioning.  There are studies that show an increase risk for childhood leukemia and other cancers and diseases.  The World Health Organization labels RF-EMF a possible carcinogen. And they're putting this cell tower over a recreational facility used by kids, and directly over the top of a house with three children, two of them just little girls.

Will the cell tower affect property value?
Yes. A study by the National Institute for Science, Law & Public Policy found that 79 percent of respondents said that under NO circumstances would they EVER purchase or rent a property within a few blocks of a cell tower. Also, 94 percent said that cell towers and antennas in a neighborhood or on a building would impact their interest in a property and the price they would be willing to pay for it.

Will the cell tower affect the sale price of my house?
Yes. Significantly. The study found that buyers would pay as much as 20 percent less for a property near a cell tower, meaning that they would be seeking a GREATER than 20 percent discount from your asking price.

​Will there be other buildings or equipment?
Yes; there will be a roughly 46'x22' chain-link fenced area that will include the cell tower, retaining wall, diesel generator, electric cabinets, HVAC units, battery units and other equipment.

Will the tower be noisy?
A diesel generator will run once a week for testing.  It will kick into gear when there is a power outage. There are heat exchangers that will run constantly. They will say that the units are below certain thresholds.  But they can't deny that they will be ADDING new and unwanted noise to our community.