T-Mobile – Serving Mission Viejo?
By Dale Tyler

Mission Viejo has more than enough cell phone sites. Sure, there are a few locations where one might have a poor signal, but this is a hilly city. Unless we put the ugly antennas on every building, tree and bush, there will always be such areas. For some reason, the City Council lapdogs of the cell companies, Lance MacLean and Frank Ury, the same council members who spearheaded paying a cell-site broker more than $200,000 from taxpayer funds to draw up a so-called cellular master plan, think uninterrupted cell coverage is a fundamental right that trumps all others, including basic property rights.

Yet, T-Mobile and other cell companies are trying to put up more and more antennas. Recently, T-Mobile applied to place a number of cell antennas on a Moulton Niguel Water District tank at 26451 Lope De Vega Drive. The application was approved by the Planning Commission with the requirement that T-Mobile improve the landscaping around the water tank to try and offset the ugliness of their antennas. T-Mobile refused to perform the landscaping to the minimum standards used by the city itself, and the approval was appealed by Councilmember Gail Reavis to try and have the objections of the neighbors and city staff heard on this project. The neighbors in the immediate area are adamantly and unanimously opposed to this installation, and they spoke at the council meeting, eloquently describing the harm that would come to them if the antennas were allowed. These neighbors’ property values will be diminished by tens of thousands of dollars while T-Mobile and Moulton Niguel enrich themselves.

There is no question about T-Mobile's tactics. They simply do not care what the people of Mission Viejo think. This is shown most clearly by statements made by the T-Mobile representative at the Nov. 5, 2007, council meeting. When asked what he would do if the request to place the antennas on the water tank was rejected, he replied that they (T-Mobile) would “go into the right-of-way.” In simple language, this is a threat by T-Mobile to put cellular antennas on streetlights, traffic signals and other publicly owned structures in the streets of Mission Viejo. Of course, this is even more unsightly than what they were threatening the neighbors of the water tank with. So, T-Mobile's approach, when told their antennas are ugly and unwanted, is to place them in an even more obtrusive place.

How selfish can T-Mobile get? The claim of the T-Mobile representative, that they are simply seeking to serve Mission Viejo residents, rings hollow. Could it simply be that T-Mobile cares more about its profits than the people of Mission Viejo? I support a company trying to make money. This is the American way. However, doing so by disadvantaging the neighbors of one of your facilities seems at the very least poor public relations.

Another question about T-Mobile's installation on the Moulton Niguel water tank needs to be asked. Since cell phone carriers are all using similar technologies, why was T-Mobile the only carrier whose antennas would be on the water tank? It seems that there should be a complete moratorium on all new cell sites until every existing site contains the antennas of every carrier trying to serve Mission Viejo. If, at this point, the citizens of Mission Viejo feel the need for more cell phone coverage, then and only then a few more selected sites, housing all cell phone carriers' antennas, might be constructed.

Until that time, Mission Viejo should say no to T-Mobile's water tank proposal and all others that do not propose to use existing cellular antenna sites.