Aliso Viejo Approves New Guidelines for Wireless-Communication Equipment

The City Council lifted a two-year moratorium on cell phone antennas in Aliso Viejo and approved new guidelines for wireless facilities at Wednesday night's council meeting.

Under an urgency ordinance passed with a 4-0 vote June 1, officials established a new system where the more visible the wireless equipment the applicant wants to install, the more local review the applicant must go through.

For example, if Verizon wanted to build a wireless antenna camouflaged into an existing building in a nonresidential district far from homes, it would need only the approval of the city’s planning director.

However, a request for a non-camouflaged antenna in the same area would require a full conditional-use permit, which requires City Council approval.  

Mayor Carmen Cave said the council has had issues in the past with the location of these wireless facilities being “too close to people’s homes.”

 “We’ve had concerns over the aesthetics and the noise and just the impact of it being in a residential neighborhood,” Cave said.

She said the new ordinance will help the city concentrate the wireless antennas in less obvious areas or make them “disguised or less visible,” which “makes it easier for the community to accept them.”

The approved ordinance also covers satellite dishes and amateur radio antennas.

Speaking during the public-comments portion on the item, John Heffernan, director of external affairs for AT&T, said the company had  concerns about the language and restrictions in the amendment but did not mention specifics.

“The draft of this ordinance came to us late on Friday, and we just have not had an opportunity, and we would appreciate being giving an appropriate amount of time, to thoroughly review the language and to comment formally back to staff,” Heffernan said.

City staffers said they had worked with a representative from the company a few months earlier but would set up meetings with AT&T to discuss the company’s concerns.   

The Wednesday vote comes near the end of a two-year moratorium on wireless-antenna applications established in 2009.

Because the moratorium expires in mid-June, the staff said there was a need for an urgency ordinance to cover a gap in coverage until the second reading of the ordinance, planned for June 15, after which it will go into effect.  

For the full list of new code, click here and scroll to 7-1.

Other business

• The city awarded a contract for the Town Center Loop Pedestrian Enhancement Project Phase 2 to EBS General Engineering for $460,373, with the possibility of 10 percent extra for contingencies.
  The city staff expects construction on the project to begin  July 5 and finish Sept. 13.
• Director of Planning Services Albert Armijo gave an update on Aliso Viejo’s Green City Initiative, a plan for the city to become more environmentally friendly and use more alternative forms of energy.
  For more information on the initiative, click here to visit the page on the city’s website.
    The staff expects to submit the plan by the end of the year, and by next year the initiative will be part of the city’s general plan.
• The council honored students from Don Juan Avila Elementary and Middle School for their performance at the Destination Imagination Tournament in the state championships in the spring.
  The teams were the Zombie Pandas, Super Happy Funtime Unhealthy Trailmix and Wild Warhawk Dragons.
• Local members of the Boy Scout Troop 700 led the Pledge of Allegiance.
• Cave and council members Donald Garcia, Greg Ficke and Phillip Tsunoda attended.
• Council member William Phillips was absent.