T-Mobile Seeks to Install 'Stealth' Antennas on Lake Forest Drive, El Toro Road

T-Mobile has submitted an application to the city of Lake Forest to install two new cell-signal service sites that would potentially be disguised as light poles, city staffers have said.

On Tuesday, the City Council approved a standard contract that the city could offer to companies like T-Mobile looking to put such sites in the public right-of-way. Until now, there had been no standard agreement, but T-Mobile's application caused city staff to draw one up.

The sites would be disguised as light poles under the newly approved standard agreement, City Manager Robert Dunek told the council Tuesday. The city would take posession of existing poles owned by Southern California Edison and replace them with light posts owned and maintained by the city, featuring transmission equipment owned and maintained by the cell company.

Generally, cities collect rental fees from wireless carriers operating on city property.

Such "stealth" cell towers would look like regular light poles, Dunek said, but be a little bit "fatter."

One of the proposed T-Mobile sites would be on El Toro Road between Trabuco Road and Portola Parkway, while the other would be on Lake Forest Drive, north of Trabuco, said Assistant City Manager David Belmer.

The development applications from Coastal Business Group, which represents T-Mobile, have not yet been deemed as complete by staff yet and thus won't be in front of the Planning Commission for at least few weeks, Belmer said.

The city is legally required to accomodate requests from wireless carriers who want to install communications facilities in the publicly owned right-of-way, according to a staff report presented at Tuesday's council meeting. But except for a single requrest in 1998, Lake Forest has not been asked to do so until now; other wireless companies have located their facilities on private property.

A representative for Coastal Business Group did not respond to a phone message asking for an interview.