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Board upholds planning commission, denies Vertical Bridge/T‑Mobile tower at San Joaquin River Club
Summary
The Board of Supervisors upheld the planning commission's denial of a proposed 100‑foot T‑Mobile tower at the San Joaquin River Club, voting 3‑2 that the proposed location was not the least intrusive and that alternative technologies or sites merited further consideration.
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 11 declined to overturn a planning commission denial and rejected a Vertical Bridge/T‑Mobile appeal seeking to build a 100‑foot communication tower at the San Joaquin River Club. The motion to deny the appeal passed 3‑2 after several hours of public comment and testimony from competing groups of River Club residents.
Vertical Bridge and T‑Mobile argued the tower was needed to close a documented gap in wireless coverage and capacity for indoor and roadway users in the area, and submitted an alternative-site analysis that rejected nearby parcels and airport‑adjacent sites as infeasible. The company also supplied radio‑frequency safety modeling showing exposure estimates well below Federal Communications Commission limits.
Opponents — including many River Club residents and officials who said the club’s board had not properly informed the membership — urged the board to uphold the commission, arguing the site is adjacent to a dense cluster of private homes, has proximity to levees and floodplain areas and that alternative solutions merit further study. Several residents also questioned the club’s process for signing a lease and expressed concern about long-term liens or rights-of-first-refusal included in the developer’s contract.
Board members who voted to deny the appeal said they were not convinced the proposed location was the “least intrusive” option and cited the emerging availability of satellite-based services as an example of other technology paths. Supervisors who voted to approve the tower earlier in the meeting were persuaded by Vertical Bridge’s coverage maps and safety analysis, but the majority said the record did not eliminate feasible and less-intrusive alternatives. The denial preserves the planning commission’s October decision and leaves the applicant the option to propose alternative sites or pursue additional studies.
