Nextel Communications, Inc. (Nextel) seeks to add a 10-foot extension to an existing 110-foot guyed-lattice tower located at 4 Dittmar Road Redding. This tower is located on a 5.58 acre residential parcel of property. Presently Cingular antennas are mounted at 98 feet, Velocitia Wireless (data management company) antennas are mounted at 76 feet and 81 feet and an unused whip antenna that extends to 117 feet above ground level or seven feet above the top of the tower.

Nextel proposes to add ten feet of lattice structure to the existing tower, reinforce the tower with new guys at 20, 50, and 107.5 feet and remove the unused whip antenna. These modifications are done to make the tower structurally sound. Nextel also would install a 12-foot by 20-foot equipment shelter within a new fenced 21.5 foot by 30 foot compound.

Council member Gerry Heffernan and staff person Fred Cunliffe met with Nextel representative Chris Fisher and Hans Fiedler at the site on September 21, 2005. Numerous residents of the neighborhood were present for the field review and expressed an objection to the tower.

Nextel petitions the Council for a determination that the proposed modification to an existing tower and other improvements do not require a Certificate of Environmental Compatibility and Public Need.

Based upon the scope of the field review Council Member Heffernan and Council staff recommend a hearing in the Town of Redding with the following proposed schedule: