Costa Mesa Residents Air Concerns Over 5G Towers
COSTA MESA (CBSLA) — The next generation of cell phone technology will mean faster wireless internet connections, but many are worried about where the new towers will go. Compounding the issue is that cities have very little control — and they're not getting much notice.
That lack of notice is causing residents of Costa Mesa concern, and they told the city council they don't want the 5G cell towers on their streets without any notice during a study session Tuesday night.
"It's alarming, and as a public we're concerned," Bryan Estrada, a Costa Mesa resident, said. "I'm concerned. I've got young kids, and I want to know more and I want to know why these things are just going to be rolled out en masse in front of our homes and have no say or no control in stopping them."
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Residents asked the council to pass an ordinance that would control how the towers were rolled out. The residents fear that without the ordinance, hundreds of towers would be placed next to homes and schools with no notification.
"One of the proposed locations is less than 10 feet away from where children go to a preschool," Monica Draghici, a Costa Mesa resident, said. "That is not acceptable."
The engineer representing cities involved in the rollout said the Federal Communications Commission declared 30 years ago that the radiation emitted from such towers was not a concern. The FCC will make the final decision on the location of the proposed towers.
The city attorney said the only way for residents to take action against the proposed towers would be to contact their representatives in congress and have the law changed.