Agoura Hills Planning Commission presses T‑Mobile on rooftop antennas, requires ongoing RF compliance reporting

The Agoura Hills Planning Commission held an extended public hearing May 21 to consider a conditional use permit (WIRE‑2025‑0014) for modifications to an existing rooftop wireless facility serving T‑Mobile.

Associate Planner Katrina Garcia outlined the site’s history: originally permitted as a Pacific Bell Mobile Services base station in 1996, later modified and colocated by MetroPCS, and subject to an eligible‑facilities streamlining process in 2015. Staff said unpermitted equipment changes after 2015 caused the site to fall out of compliance and require a full conditional use permit to legalize the current configuration and proposed upgrades.

Garcia described the proposal to remove and relocate antennas, replace two rooftop equipment cabinets, add a GPS antenna and cable management, and enclose rooftop antennas in fiber‑reinforced plastic (FRP) cupola screens designed to mimic the building. Staff noted the design keeps most equipment below the parapet and uses FRP because it is radio‑transparent and preserves signal performance.

Commissioners focused on three technical and policy issues: the site’s prior noncompliance, modeled radio‑frequency exposure (an engineering report showed a rooftop predictive maximum of about 1,538 percent of the FCC general‑population limit while ground‑level exposure was modeled at roughly 79–80 percent), and how the city will ensure continued compliance.

The commission’s RF consultant explained antenna patterns as directional 'flashlight' beams and described a controlled access zone (CAS) on the rooftop where the model shows exposure above the general‑population limit. Mitigation proposed in the staff conditions includes paint striping to delineate the CAS, RF caution signage, locking mechanisms to restrict roof access and a requirement that the permittee implement corrective measures if future adjacent development increases exposure.

Staff read condition language into the record (a provision identified in the staff report as a draft condition 29) requiring the permittee to remain at all times in full compliance with applicable federal RF emissions and exposure regulations, to cooperate with the city and adjacent property owners, to provide updated RF studies and mitigation measures, and to bear the continuing cost of RF compliance. Staff also said the permittee must submit a compliance report every two years and any time the site is modified.

Joshua Hernandez of Network Connects, representing T‑Mobile, described the technical scope (remove four antennas, relocate three, install three new antennas, replace two equipment cabinets, add a GPS antenna and two screened cupolas) and said the upgrades aim to improve coverage and capacity while minimizing visibility. He confirmed that T‑Mobile (the permittee) will be responsible for providing RF reports and coordinating mitigation.

Commissioners asked whether the city could require annual inspections, photographic evidence, bilingual signage or other tools. City staff and the city attorney advised the commission of federal preemption limits related to RF health and safety but said the city can require reporting, site access controls, signs and mitigation measures as conditions of land‑use approval. Staff suggested language that would require bilingual signage 'to the extent not preempted' and told commissioners the conditions run with the land so future owners or operators would be bound by them.

At the close of the hearing staff prepared a draft resolution that incorporates the RF compliance conditions and the two‑year reporting requirement; the commission moved into deliberations with several members indicating they could make the required findings if the proposed conditions remain in place. No final vote on Item 2 appears in the provided transcript; staff placed a draft resolution on the screen for final consideration.