NATIONAL DESK
At 72 Feet, A Big Thorn in This Wealthy Town's Side
By CAROL POGASH
July 30, 2004
TIBURON, Calif. -- Five years and $15 million dollars ago, the residents of Marin County, across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, agreed to build a state-of-the-art radio communications system linking police, fire and other emergency services county-wide. Today, only half the county is being served and no one is naive enough to predict when the rest will be.
At issue is the placement of a single 72 ft. antenna on the spectacular Tiburon peninsula and a community split over scientific truths.
Health-conscious residents who support the concept have halted completion of the communications system.
It's not so much the residents as it is a pair of residents: Howard and Diane Zack, whose home with its 280 degree view of the Bay, is less than 100 feet from the proposed site for the tower. Electromagnetic frequencies would pulsate through their children's bedrooms as they already do from televisions, radios and cell phones.
Despite assurances that radio frequency waves emanating from antennas are well within federal safety guidelines, many communities across the nation have balked at shoehorning towers into residential neighborhoods. Some object for aesthetic and real estate reasons, a problem sometimes resolved by disguising antennas as artificial trees with permanently green leaves. In New York, where officials are planning a statewide system, environmentalists want to bar antennas from the Adirondacks. Others worry about the risk of radiation, recalling earlier news accounts, most of which have since been debunked by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers committee on electromagnetic safety, about the dangers of cell phone and other electronic devices.
What is called "the battle of Tiburon" is a dispute magnified by the extraordinary financial resources of both sides and the attitude in the Zacks' neighborhood that, along with property rights, residents have purchased surroundings that cannot be improved for the common good without their consent.
Aside from a milky fog wafting across the Bay, not much happens in the Zack neighborhood that has not been scheduled on refrigerator calendars long in advance. When Mr. Zack wanted to build a tree house for his three children, he was advised that plans would have to undergo a design review process.
During more civil times, the Marin Emergency Radio Authority, the agency created to oversee the system, applied to Tiburon for a use permit. After the permit was denied, MERA officials seized the land, then owned by the local water district, through eminent domain.
Convinced they had no alternative, the Zacks filed a lawsuit against MERA in 2002. The agency counter sued and also sued the town of Tiburon. Since then, county officials have spent a half a million dollars in litigation costs, said MERA executive director Martin Nichols. Completion of the project has been delayed by several years.
If the county wins, Mrs. Zack said that would be tantamount to an eviction notice. "We are reasonable people," she said, speeding up her words as she considered the prospect. She considers the antenna a threat to the health of her children. "Radiation isn't healthy for humans. It causes cancer, " she said. "The controversy is over how much and over what period." In fact, the radiation from the proposed tower is not believed to have a cumulative effect, although long-term studies have been limited.
" The massive weight of the science is that these are conservative standards that protect the public," said Dr. Marvin Ziskin, immediate past chairman of the IEEE Committee on Man and Radiation. "Look at the amount of radiation we're exposed to on a daily basis, " he said. "People aren't afraid of their radios."
"Some 20 years from now, we might learn something, but," he added, "there's no reason to believe there would be any evidence. "
That is not good enough for the Zacks, who rattle off anecdotal information and refer questioners to researchers such as University of Washington professor of bioengineering, Henry Lai Ph.D. who contends an antenna so close to a house "is too close for comfort." In his research, Dr. Lai has found biological effects from long-term exposure to radiation from antenna.
"Good labs have tried to reproduce his work," Dr. Ziskin said, "and have not succeeded." But such assurances fail to calm the fears of parents such as Mr. and Mrs. Zack.
The courts will not decide the health issue. They will determine whether or not MERA, a joint powers authority or a single purpose agency, has that right to supersede town ordinances.
Had the dispute simmered somewhere else, it might not have come to this.
"The higher you go in the hills, the better the view, the more expensive the real estate and the greater the desire of residents to keep what they have," said the sympathetic Tiburon city manager Alex McIntyre who has the unenviable job of representing Tiburon on the MERA board. The. Zack live on a hill that happens to be an ideal habitat for possums, deer and a radio antenna.
Responding to the governmental intrusion, in the spring of 2000, Mr. Zack's neighbors began what he calls "grassroots advocacy at its best." They "passed the hat," collecting $100,000 -- and that was just for research. Since then, Mr. Zack, an entrepreneur and philanthropist, and his former neighbor Russell Pratt, a developer of shopping malls, have hired seasoned land use attorneys, engineers and consultants. Before a city council meeting, they distributed buttons that said "Not in Anybody's Backyard."
Mr. Pratt has been a very good neighbor indeed, spending $350,000 to file his own lawsuit. "It is," he says, "a matter of principle." Mr. Zack has spent nearly twice that amount.
They found alternative sites in other communities, although their solution called for two smaller antennas, a solution that MERA executive director Martin Nichols complained would increase costs by as much as a million dollars.
While other MERA antennas are close to homes, none is as close as the one proposed next to the Zack home. When MERA suggested other Tiburon sites, such as one besides the sewage treatment plant, people who lived nearby protested.
"They have a sense of entitlement," bristled MERA chairman Steve Kinsey. "These folks generally create the outcome they want by using their resources, influence and power. From the beginning," he added, "they have said they don't care what we do, just don't do it to us. That, more than anything, has embittered other cities and towns."
"They have been impervious to our concerns," said Mr. Zack. "They vilified us."
Even though the police in the city of San Rafael desperately needed a new communications system, the city's former police chief said he could identify with the Zacks. "It's hard to quarrel with people about the health and welfare of their families," said former San Rafael Police Chief Michael Cronin, who retired from the force earlier this month. MERA officials don't share in that empathy.
Matters grew more strained after 9/11 when everyone immediately wanted better emergency connections. And over the years, Mr. Kinsey acknowledged, the views of MERA officials hardened.
Mr. Nichols blames Tiburon for the fact that the southern part of the county remains offline. "It has delayed service to everyone," he said.
"We can't live without risk," Mr. Nichols contends. The Zacks and their neighbors ought to consider, "the risk if police don't come when you have a heart attack or there's a fire on your hill," he said.
The legal case has wended its way through the system. The Zacks, their neighborhood group and the town of Tiburon won in the lower courts. They lost at the appellate division and have filed a petition to request a hearing before the California Supreme Court, which will make a determination in the next 30 days.
Both sides have talked about a two-antenna compromise in which the town of Tiburon helps defray the extra expense. The problem is they both say it, they just don't say it to one another.
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