We are pleased that the county of Napa and the city of Calistoga are updating their ordinances to address the recent trend of wireless companies requesting to put âsmallâ cell antennas and macro cell towers in the public right-of-way, bringing them closer to where people live, work, and go to school, thereby increasing peopleâs exposure to wireless radiation, creating visual blight, and lowering peopleâs property values.
Unfortunately, their proposed ordinances are not what concerned citizens had in mind.
Unless amended, these ordinances will codify the free-for-all that has taken place during the last two years, when the Napa County public works director allowed Verizon to install seven 4G/5G-ready cell antennas on telephone poles along Silverado Trail and Illumination Technologies to install three 60-foot monopoles as speculative cell towers, two just outside of Calistoga and one on Silverado Trail across from the historic Soda Canyon Store, in close proximity to homes, the storeâs historic building, and in areas with threatened and endangered species, without an environmental assessment and without a public hearing.