Send this to the City Clerk, Jason Lindgren, at jlindgren@elkgrovecity.org
Please copy me on your message. You have my email address.
Dear Mayor Singh-Allen, City Council Members and staff,
My name is [your name] and I live at [your address] in Elk Grove.
I recently learned that the City is planning to allow Verizon to install a new 5G cell antenna on the City light pole right behind the house at 10073 Mosaic Way. The City has not yet issued a permit. Many studies have found that the electromagnetic radiation from cell towers and antennas is harmful to human health.
Is it true that the Telecommunications Act of 1996 preserves local zoning authority other than a couple of exceptions and that the current Elk Grove Municipal Code protects health and the environment from cell antenna radiation in 23.94.035, Small Cell Wireless Communications Facilities section A.6.b., which says, “No small cell wireless communication facility shall be located immediately adjacent to, nor immediately across the street from, a front yard of any residential dwelling”?
It appears the reason Verizon wants a cell antenna at this location is that Franklin High School is right across Franklin High Road. There are about 2,000 students at Franklin High.
Education works best when a teacher has the complete and undivided attention of his or her students. Teachers face a daily battle in the classroom for the minds and attention of their students. It is a battle against cell phones. Students will use their cell phones more at school if there is a new cell antenna near the school. This will take their minds and attention away from their teachers and classes.
The City has the regulatory power to:
- ask Verizon to move this cell antenna to another place that is 1,500′ or more away from a school;
- refuse to approve more new cell antenna sites near schools; and
- amend the Municipal Code to say it will not allow a cell antenna within 1,500′ of a school.
The purpose of all these measures is to prevent the harmful effect to education of students spending more and more time on their cell phones while at school.
Those are my requests. Please place those items on the agenda of a regular City Council meeting for a discussion and Council vote.
I ask for a response from the Council to these specific requests I have made.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
[Your name and address]