The city’s Planning Commission approved T-Mobile’s application to expand its network coverage but the council decided to put off its approval until hearing more on alternate technologies and having questions answered regarding health and safety issues.

A group of concerned residents have joined together to also get the council to better define where the transmitters should be placed.

Susan Wright, who lives close to the water tower, wants the council to strengthen Belmont’s zoning ordinance to include a specification of the minimum distance cell facilities can be from residences, schools and health care centers, for instance.

Wright also wants cell phone companies to investigate and propose alternate new technologies and use the least intrusive ones possible for a given situation.

“We have questions and concerns,” Councilwoman Coralin Feierbach said. “The neighbors did their homework on this. I think we need to give this a little pause.”

The council was set to make a decision on the transmitters at its Sept. 22 meeting, but discussions around health and safety caused the council to put its decision off.

Andrea Jefferson, who lives next to the water tank, presented a 99-signature petition urging the City Council to immediately establish a temporary moratorium on wireless telecommunication facilities.

However, City Attorney Marc Zafferano advised the council the Federal Communications Commission prohibits decisions to be made on cell phone transmitters based on health concerns.

The proximity of some homes to the water tank caused Councilman Bill Dickenson to request the most recent findings on the health effects of radio-frequency emissions.

“I don’t want Belmont to be a petri dish for future RF studies,” Dickenson said at the council meeting.

The water tank is off Lyon Avenue near Ralston Avenue.

The health issue dominated the conversation as the council discovered T-Mobile had also petitioned the Belmont-Redwood Shores Elementary School District to put a cell phone transmitter on the campus of Ralston Middle School.

T-Mobile made a proposal to the board of trustees but the board wanted more information before making a decision, said school District Superintendent Emerita Orta-Camilleri.

T-Mobile’s proposal to the school district, however, seemed at odds with Mayor David Braunstein’s impression that the water tank proposal would cover all of T-Mobile’s gaps.

“Putting a cell tower at a middle school when so many people feel that there are health hazards doesn’t make sense to me,” Councilwoman Christine Wozniak said at the Sept. 22 council meeting.

The council expressed interest in a proposal to use of a network of low-emission transmitters that work like home WiFi and run off house current and wanted T-Mobile to bring in more information on that technology.

Bill Silverfarb can be reached by e-mail: silverfarb@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 106.