In response to strong objections being raised, Verizon Wireless has considered alternative sites to their plan to install a nine-cell antenna mini-telecom station on a 42nd Street building in northwest Oakland, on the Emeryville border.

The building is about 100 feet away and directly across the street from NOCCS, the North Oakland Community Charter School, in one direction, from the four-story Green City Lofts residential building in the opposite direction, close to a number of single-family residences and less than two blocks from the Anna Yates Elementary School in Emeryville.

For the last year, neighborhood residents and NOCCS parents have organized to oppose the telecom installation. They have demonstrated at the site and in a 200-person march to the Verizon store in Emeryville, sent Verizon letters and e-mails and phoned their objections to the installation plan on the basis of health and safety concerns.

In response, Verizon executive John Johnson said "we are reevaluating this project in view of the inquiries we have received recently. Please note that we intend to retain our rights to the city-approved location and to use it as the project site if we are unable to identify a viable alternative after further review.”

The group in opposition, the East Bay Residents for Responsible Antenna Placement - EBR-RAP - has suggested various alternative sites within and close to Verizon’s stated target radius of one-half mile from the presently permitted site.

Verizon has since found cause to reject those sites. According to the NOCCS board of directors, who met with Verizon representatives, in some cases the building tenants didn’t want the antennas on their roofs; in other cases the sites are electronically unacceptable because of signal limitations or interference from nearby antennas. EBR-RAP, however, maintains that the planned location will be hazardous to the nearby populace, which includes 214 children at NOCCS and 383 children at Ana Yates Elementary School. They and the NOCCS board continue to press for an alternative site.

Verizon obtained the necessary permits from the cities of Oakland and Emeryville last summer for the planned 1001 42nd St. installation. Zoning regulations for mixed business-residential zones in Oakland made Verizon’s permitting process simple then, so city officials could not give much weight to the objections raised by residents and school parents. The zoning regulations for telecom installations in such districts have been revised this year by the Oakland City Council in a move initiated by Councilwoman Jane Brunner, but the 42nd Street site permit was already issued and is not affected by that change.

The residents, school parents and teachers express concerns about the potential health effects of sustained nearby exposure to increased levels of the electromagnetic frequency, or EMF, radiation emitted by the antennas.

“Little research information has been available from American scientists until recently, but European research has led some European countries to take a precautionary approach,” said Jeanine Harmon, an EBR-RAP member
and parent of two NOCCS students. “Especially near schools because children are the most vulnerable population. We can’t see the EMF, so it’s easy to assume it’s OK, and that the government authorities and private companies are looking out for our best interests.”

The protests against the proposed 42nd Street antenna installation site have been covered by local television, radio and newspaper outlets. The EBR-RAP group also circulated a petition in November and gathered more than 185 signatures in opposition to the antennas.

The petition called for the zoning code revision recently made by the city of Oakland and for the NOCCS school board to pass a resolution opposing the nearby installation of the antennas. The school board agreed, and has now passed two resolutions opposing the antennas.

The EBR-RAP group’s latest act, taken in late March, was to write and send a group-sponsored letter and a copy of the petition to John Johnson, the Verizon executive in southern California who is in the decision-making capacity. The letter was copied to upper-level Verizon executives in New York as well as to city, state and national politicians and journalists.

“We’re going to keep asking, prodding and persuading Verizon,” said Eurydice Thomas, a member of the EBR-RAP group and mother of two children at NOCCS. “The last place a mini-telecom facility should be placed is beside an elementary school with 200 children. This has turned into a long struggle, but we will not be dissuaded. We also welcome anyone wanting to join or support our effort. ”