Hello neighbors and friends, 

We have an update for you all regarding the upgraded cell site on Poinsettia. Unfortunately, it's not the update we were hoping to share with you.  

On September 17th, the appeal hearing with a third party officer was held at the City.  We presented our concerns and reiterated some of the main points from the appeal, which the hearing officer had already been provided with. Several representatives from our City were there, along with a representative from the City Attorney's office, and they provided their point of view on the legality of this site. One representative from Crown Castle was also in attendance.  

Although the hearing officer sympathized with and understood our concerns, his final determination concluded that the legal framework and procedure supports Crown Castle’s right to proceed with the installation. This was obviously incredibly disheartening, yet sadly not surprising.  We had been told by anyone who had knowledge of the workings of the telecommunications companies that these are incredibly difficult to fight.  The Telecommunications Act of 1996 greatly reduced the rights of cities and residents to fight against the installation and upgrades of these sites.

One very concerning thing we uncovered during this process is that Crown Castle has had unpermitted equipment on the site in question for over a decade.  The original permit had already expired prior to Crown Castle showing up in the middle of the night to install different equipment.  This means the equipment was illegally installed.  When digging further into this, we learned that there are at least 2 other sites in Manhattan Beach that also have expired/unpermitted equipment.  

We were hoping that this action by Crown Castle would result in them being denied upgrading the Poinsettia equipment, but unfortunately that wasn't the case.  The City asked Crown Castle to remove this unpermitted equipment by Sept. 11th, which Crown Castle has failed to do.  We have asked what consequences there will be for their lack of compliance but we were told that the City is unable to share details on the process since it is ongoing.  

It is infuriating that Crown Castle has unpermitted equipment in our neighborhoods with potentially little, to no consequences.  

So what's next? We continue to look for ways to fight the proliferation of these sites in our residential areas. No one should have to live with these in their front yard and there needs to be a better solution. 

1. We are filing a complaint with the FCC against Crown Castle / T-Mobile and invite anyone interested to do the same. Here is the link for anyone interested:  https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us
2. We are also looking into what can be done to push for legislative change in the federal regulations. This will obviously be a long and difficult process, but we are hopeful that something can be done. We are definitely not the only community concerned about this and a change in the regulations would benefit neighborhoods everywhere. 
3. We encourage anyone living near a cell site in Manhattan Beach to make a Public Records request to our City asking for copies of the available permits for the installed equipment. If you find that there are no permits, or that they have expired, notify Ryan Heise (Acting Community Development Director) at rheise@manhattanbeach.gov so that the City can pressure Crown Castle to remove the equipment or go through the proper permitting channels (which will likely be ignored, but at least the necessary process can be initiated). Our City does not have the resources to keep up with the permitting timeline for all the sites so it's falling on the residents to check the legality of the equipment near their homes.  

Lastly, we wanted to thank everyone that has been involved in this process.  The number of concerned residents that have signed this petition, sent in emails to the City, and provided resources or advice throughout this process has been more than we imagined. We are grateful to all of you and will continue to update this petition if there is any further news to share. Thank you all.