WEST U.S. -- New Sprint tower in Valley Glen, CA

Darn when I read the thread title I thought Sprint had already put up the tower. lol. This sounds like it will be a while before they actually get it complete.

Zaphod. I've never heard of a flagpole co-location before. Usually flagpoles have only one carrier.

 

I used to have an e-mail contact with the city of LA planning dept. I'll see if I can find it.

The next step for Sprint would be to have their city of LA zoning administrator hearing.

I suppose it's technically possible to do a flagpole co-location but I've never seen it happen before. You would think that Nextel would be involved with anything Sprint does now.

 

Zaphod,

I found out that Sprint's tower for Valley Glen at Vanowen and Fulton will be a 50 Ft flagpole. There will be no co-location on it. It will be Sprint only. It has an estimated on air date of 7/10/2006 (that of course is subject to change).

 

I've seen poles before that are supposed to be flagpoles(but this specific one is actually missing the flag) that had 3 carriers on it.

 

Yeah but here in the LA/OC area it's not something that can be done too easily. To locate 3 carriers on a flagpole antenna, you figure it would have to be at least 75 feet high to provide the necessary coverage. So the carriers would have to obtain a zone variance or special use permit for that. I haven't seen it happen but it's possible. But like I said Sprint will not be sharing this tower in Valley Glen with anyone (at least not yet).

 

I forgot that we are talking about So.Cal, makes sense in that case. Would it be easier for another carrier to chime in, wanting to put their panels below Sprint's once construction is starting and approved by the city? Or would that carrier have to go through the same, long process?

 

Yes this is So. Cal we're talking about. We don't have those big 100-250 ft towers that you see in more rural and less populated areas. Everything new is short and/or disguised now.

In this case it would actually be better for the other carrier to make a seperate installation. That way they can have two short poles instead of one tall one or they can find a nearby rooftop or structure to hide the antennas. But you never know. Co-location is sometimes easier to get through but many cities still have the same long drawn out process for that as well.

 

Thanks Larry. I wonder why cities make it some hard, especially for hidden colocations where nothing would change the appearance of the already established flag tower or something similar. With all those laws and regulations it's surprising that carriers are able to add so many sites every year in So.Cal.

 

Yeah I can never understand it either. It wasn't like that in the old days (circa 1995) here in LA. back then a carrier could build a tower just about anywhere they wanted without having to do any kind of public hearing or obtain a conditional use permit. It was so easy back then. But Pac Bell mobile services ruined that when they built so many towers here in CA in the 90's. The cities started to get complaints about it and they started cracking down on it and changing the rules.

 

That's a drastic change; blame it on Pac Bell/Cingular. Was the late 90's a time when they had severe capacity issues?

 

They were the first carrier to build a 1900 Mhz network from scratch so they needed to build many towers often times spaced a half mile apart. Then came Sprint. Then Airtouch and La Cellular decided they needed to convert to digital and expand as well. At this time the 2 800 Mhz carriers had very few towers. So around 1997-1999 is when the mass tower frenzy was happening. The rules were primarily changed because of Pac Bell.

 

Thanks for the background info Larry. I have no more questions for once.

 

It must have been nice for the carriers to be able to build a tower anywhere they wanted in the city of LA (commercial/industrial zoned areas) without a permit or public hearing. That's totally unheard of today!

 

I was going to say...if they'd allow that today, there'd be chaos, lol.

 

This thread is nearly 3 years old but I'm digging it up because Sprint has finally built this tower that Zaphod first talked about in 2005. The tower is built but is still waiting for T1's and is not yet active. Some sites take a lot longer than expected that's for sure!

 

Too funny. I was wondering what the deal was with this old thread coming back from the dead.

Better late than never, I suppose!

 

Whenever I get around to my next bulk picture upload I'll be posting pictures of this tower. I've had them for a while and I think somewhere I have some of it under construction.