San Mateo commission upholds wireless permit for 124 Warren Road, denies neighborhood appeals 5-0

The Sustainability and Infrastructure Commission on Feb. 12 denied appeals and upheld the conditional approval of a Crown Castle small‑cell wireless permit for a pole‑mounted installation in front of 124 Warren Road, concluding the application met the city’s 2021 wireless design standards and applicable federal rules.

The vote was 5-0 to deny the appeals and allow the permit to proceed, meaning the conditional approval will become an official wireless permit unless the applicant elects otherwise.

Staff told the commission the application complied with the 2021 design standards and with FCC regulations and that third‑party engineering review supported the director’s conditional approval. “Staff’s recommendation for this is to deny the appeals and uphold the conditional approval of the permit,” said JU, Public Works engineering manager.

Appellants, consolidated into a single appeal for the Warren Road site, argued the application failed to demonstrate that less‑obtrusive alternatives were infeasible and that the applicant had not shown clear, site‑specific coverage objectives. Ariel Strauss, counsel for appellant Alicia Woodifall Jones, told the commission the submission was “entirely boilerplate” and criticized reliance on generic citations to GO95 (PG&E) rules without site‑specific factual analysis.

Nearby residents described the proposed antenna and its mounting arm as visually intrusive.…