HomeMy WebLinkAbout3.0_AT&T Small Cell SLC4653 Call for Review_PA2019-115
CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH
PLANNING COMMISSION STAFF REPORT
June 4, 2020
Agenda Item No. 3
SUBJECT: AT&T Small Cell SLC4653 Call for Review (PA2019-115)
Minor Use Permit No. UP2019-034
SITE LOCATION: Public right-of-way, City streetlight number SLC4653, on the north side
of Bayside Drive, approximately 900 feet northwest of El Paseo Drive.
APPLICANT: New Cingular Wireless, LLC
OWNER: City of Newport Beach
PLANNER: Joselyn Perez, Assistant Planner
949-644-3312, jperez@newportbeachca.gov
SUMMARY
On April 16, 2020, the Zoning Administrator conducted a public hearing and approved an
application filed by New Cingular Wireless, LLC (AT&T) for a minor use permit to allow
the installation of a wireless telecommunications facility on City streetlight number
SLC4653. Unfortunately, the call for review request was submitted after the 14-day
period within which an appeal or call for review must be filed as prescribed by the Newport
Beach Municipal Code. As a result, the call for review is not valid and the Zoning
Administrator’s decision to approve the referenced application is valid and effective.
RECOMMENDATION
Receive and file.
Prepared by: Submitted by:
BMZ/jp
June 4, 2020, Planning Commission Item 3 Comments
These comments on a Newport Beach Planning Commission agenda item are submitted by:
Jim Mosher ( jimmosher@yahoo.com ), 2210 Private Road, Newport Beach 92660 (949-548-6229).
Item No. 3. AT&T SMALL CELL SLC4653 CALL FOR REVIEW
(PA2019-115)
It seems to me this matter is being conducted in a very non-transparent way.
After going to the trouble and expense of posting notice of a public hearing, and the continuance
of the same to the present date, as well as publishing notice in the City’s newspaper of record,
and inviting the public to comment, the agenda now seems to tell us the matter will not be heard
at all because the call for review petition was filed late.
No staff report, proof of the allegation, or further explanation is provided.
As a result, the public does not even know who called for the review, or when.
This seems rather extraordinary to me in view of the fact that courts frequently excuse minor
lapses of code-required timing when there are extenuating circumstances. And this rigidity
seems especially strange when, in the similar previous item on the current agenda, staff
assures the Planning Commission that City codes do not always mean what they say: if the
normal requirement for a Coastal Development Permit in the LCP Implementation Plan (in the
previous item) can be overridden by consultation with Coastal Commission staff, might there not
be some mechanism for bypassing the normal 14-day deadline in the Zoning Code?
It would seem to me the previously-noticed hearing should proceed at least to the extent of
considering why it is not proceeding any further, and whether the Commission agrees that was
the correct decision under the circumstances, whatever they were.
Planning Commission - June 4, 2020
Item 3a Additional Materials Received
AT&T Small Cell SLC4653 Call for Review (PA2019-115)