A patch of parking lot behind an Oakridge mini-mall is being guarded around the clock while its status as a future telecommunications tower location remains up in the air. "I've been here for the past 18 days basically just sitting around roasting like a rotisserie chicken," said security guard Sanji Pakarti on Wednesday.
Construction on a 14.9-metre Telus cellphone tower near West 49th Avenue and Oak Street halted earlier this month after nearby residents protested at city hall.
A group calling themselves the Concerned Neighbour Committee said they are worried about potential health risks and have collected about 800 signatures protesting the tower's inclusion in their neighbourhood. Hand-made signs protesting the plan dot the lawns of several surrounding homes.
Sita Walia, a spokesperson for the group, said she wants the city's standards regarding telecommunications infrastructure to be as strict as the Vancouver School Board's, which doesn't allow for towers to be built within 305 metres (1,000 feet) of school property because of the chance children could be more susceptible to exposure to radio frequency (RF) radiation.
"The fact that the tower, a large piece of industrial equipment is metres within a residence is not comforting," Walia wrote in a letter to the city and copied to the Courier. "We believe that until conclusive research demonstrates that there are no adverse effects from cellular towers, cellular towers currently being built should be moved 305m away from residential areas."
Green Party Coun. Adriane Carr introduced a motion at council July 9 to require public consultation for any new cell towers, not just those 15 metres or higher as is the current policy. She also called for RF standards to be 100 times below levels set out in Health Canada's Safety Code 6 in order to meet similar safety codes in other countries.
The motion was referred to staff. A worker at one of the mall's shops who didn't want to give her name said the landlord had originally told them they were simply building an electric-car charging station.
"The first we heard about it was when neighbours started coming in asking questions about it," she said.
