In a rather brief (two hour) monthly meeting, a rump Altadena Town Council kicked back the proposed T-Mobile cell tower to the land use committee.
Representatives of two groups (Altadenans for St. Elizabeth’s, and the Altadena Neighborhod Alliance) urged the council to reconsider its approval of a cell phone tower to be located at St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Church at Lake and Woodbury. Steve Escobar of Altadenans for St. Elizabeth’s presented the council with the signatures of 385 neighbors who were opposed to the tower.
After some discussion, the council voted to ask the land use committee to readdress the tower in light of the strong community opposition.
In other action:
- CT 4601 rep TIm Kelly said that he looked into constituent complaints about rather aggressive curb address painters. Curb painters need county permits, and one of the companies working the neighborhood (Curbs USA) does not have a permit, Kelly said. If you see curb address painters in your neighborhood, contact the L.A. County Dept. of Public Works, 626-338-9515; if they are too aggressive in demanding payment, call the sheriff’s department.
- Set the deadline for applying for the town council election at 5 p.m. May 13 at the community center.
- Heard from representatives from the Sahag-Mesrob Armenian School about the acquisition of their new school property at 183 E. Palm. The school, which presently has a preschool-grade school campus at 2501 Maiden Lane and rents space at the Pasadena First Church of the Nazarene, plans to consolidate at the new property. Principal Shahe Garabedian said that they hope to grow from their present 300 students to 450 or 500.
SS said…
Why is the Altadena Town Council website so outdated? The last agenda posted was from 1/08, and the last minutes posted are from 11/07!!
Not everyone can pull away from their school age children on a weeknight to attend a 2+ hour council meeting.
As a relative newcomer to Altadena, it seems that outreach to the community in the form of keeping this website updated is sorely lacking.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008 at 08:28 AM
Mini said…
The Altadena Town Council did not give the Altadena Neighborhood Alliance or the Altadenans for St. Elizabeth a chance to speak. Each Council member represents a census tract. Each census tract is comprised of their constituents who elected the council members. I don’t see the ATC doing a very good job of representing their constituents if there is strong public opposition to the the cell tower at St. Elizabeth. No public surveys were taken to determine whether there was opposition to the cell tower early in the proposal. Shouldn’t the Council Members take a little time to be properly informed so they could inform their constiuents of the cell tower issue. The ATC never allowed early notification or public input regarding the cell tower proposal at St. Elizabeth and only had the misleading input of the T-Mobile Representative before approving the cell tower at the historic St. Elizabeth Church. Who is the ATC really representing?
Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 01:31 AM
Altadenablog said…
All due respect, Mini, we were at the meeting, and the council DID give both groups a chance to speak. The story in fact is about the groups’ representatives speaking. THere were no surveys — surveys aren’t required — but there was public notice, altho’ one of the ongoing bones of contention is how adequate the notice was. It’s a strong statement to say “the ATC never allowed … public input …” Really? There’s always space for public comment in meetings (in fact, it’s legally required).
The cell tower project has obviously generated a lot of opposition, and there’s reason to believe that the process could have been done better, and T-Mobile may or may not have been forthcoming enough. That’s why it’s important for those on both sides to stick to the facts and not create more inaccuracies or generate innuendo.
Thursday, April 17, 2008 at 11:15 PM