Closing Digital Divide Is 'False' Justification for More L.A. Cell Towers: Complaint

An ordinance amending the Los Angeles County Code, allowing for “the fast-tracked proliferation of wireless infrastructure,” violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the state constitution, alleged a complaint Tuesday (docket 23STCP00750) in Los Angeles County Superior Court, filed by Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and other nonprofits.

The lawsuit seeks to enjoin Los Angeles County, local planning commissions and the Los Angeles Department of Public Works from approving an ordinance amending Titles 16 and 22 of the county code to establish regulations for the review and permitting of wireless telecommunications facilities. Ordinances passed in January “flout environmental laws, violate due process rights and ignore safety concerns,” said a CHD news release announcing the litigation.

The ordinance creates a framework for permitting “thousands of wireless facilities” throughout the county, CHD said, saying the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors exempted the project from CEQA environmental review and “purposefully and unlawfully blinded themselves to the significant and adverse consequences to its local communities.” A wireless project can “so sicken local residents that it constructively evicts whole families who can no longer tolerate continuous exposure to non-ionizing radiation emitted from small cell and macro cell towers,” CHD said.

Confusion between ministerial and discretionary authority in the county code, the “arbitrary assertion of an exemption from CEQA” and the “unlawful delegation of legislative authority” give the Los Angeles Planning Department and Department of Public Works “unfettered authority and cut the public out of the wireless facility permitting process,” said the complaint.

The Board of Supervisors’ justification for the action to “close the Digital Divide” is “false,” said the complaint. “Those most at risk on account of historical and ongoing economic, minority or other forms of discrimination will have no voice, will lack effective legal counsel, and will be unable to escape an unsafe, toxic and aesthetically displeasing environment caused by an inferior communications delivery medium,” it said.

The ordinance raises constitutional and procedural due process concerns about permit applications, the complaint said. Individuals living near many of the wireless projects governed by the ordinance “will suffer significant losses of personal and real property rights,” without a chance to contest them, it said. The wireless facilities will endanger air, water, fauna and objects of historical significance; they are also not designed to withstand floods, fires or earthquakes, it said.

Plaintiffs, also including Fiber First Los Angeles, Mothers of East LA, United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, California Fires and Firefighters, and 5G Free California, seek a writ of mandate requiring the respondent to vacate project approvals and complete a CEQA environmental review and public comment period. They also seek a temporary stay and restraining order, plus preliminary and permanent injunctions enjoining all parties in interest from taking any action to implement the project.