Mill Valley

All of the Marin Headlands can be seen in this view from the Old Stage Road, just below West Point. Mill Valley, Richardson Bay, and Angel Island are on the left, with Muir Beach on the right, and San Francisco is in the distance, behind the ridges. The redwood trees of Muir Woods National Monument dominate the middle. A thin layer of fog is seen on the Pacific out beyond the Headlands. The inversion was strong: the temperature was 101 degrees at this photo, but about 56 degrees in the fog way below. Mount Tamalpais, Marin County, CA.

A Growling List of Northern California Towns Acting to Ensure that Close Proximity Microwave Radiation Antenna – Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (CPMRA-WTFs), aka Small Cells, DO NOT Get Installed in Residential Areas.

Please click this button to Complete the Form that will enter your questions and comments into the Mill Valley public record about the installation of 4G or 5G Close Proximity Microwave Radiation Antenna – Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (CPMRA-WTFs) in residential areas.

Attend Mill Valley and Marin County Meetings

All Mill Valley meetings are held at City Hall Council Chambers. 26 Corte Madera Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941

All Marin County meetings are held at Marin County Civic Center, 3501 Civic Center Drive, Suite 328, San Rafael, California.

  • What: Oppose the coming CPMRA-WTF installation in the City of Mill Valey and in the nearby unincorporated areas
  • Why: These CPMRA-WTFs are a cancer in our residential neighborhoods and will metastasize — in the future, they can grow in size, number and power — without public review!
    1. Complete the form: provide name, email address and comments that we will print and enter into the pubic record.
    2. On September 6, 2018, the Mill Valley City Council voted 5-0 to pass an Urgency Ordinance, amending the Mill Valley Municipal Code and establishing Wireless Telecommunication Facilities Regulations that protect residential zones from the coming CPMRA-WTF installations, which will be allowed in commercial and mixed-use zones only.
Mill Valley City Council: General Public Comment — Adverse Effects of 4G/5G Densification


Mill Valley City Council: Public Comment on Agendized Item #8 — Wireless Telecom Regulations

Mill Valley City Council: Vote on Agendized Item #8 — Wireless Telecom Regulations

Tell Mill Valley and Marin County Officials:

  1. NO! No CPMRA-WTFs in any residential areas!
  2. Why? There is No proven SIGNIFICANT GAPs in Wireless coverage in Mill Valley.
  3. CPMRA-WTFs 15–50 feet from our homes ARE NOT the least intrusive means to close an alleged significant gap in coverage. There are far better locations that can provide coverage: at least 1,500 feet away from where people live, sleep and heal.
  4. Where there is NO SIGNIFICANT GAP in coverage, there is no basis for preemption of local authority.
  5. Stop this Unjustified Real Estate Grab: if any Wireless Carrier installs a CPMRA-WTF on your street, AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile and others can come back to claim the real estate at every other light pole in the neighborhood.
  6. Preserve and protect the residential character of the your neighborhood: insist on uncapped broadband internet and video data transmitted by less intrusive fiber optic cables to homes.
  7. Choose to transmit broadband internet and video data in the most energy-efficient way: it takes millions of times less energy than Wireless to transmit a 4k video/movie via fiber optic cables.
  8. The League of Cities, over 300 CA Cities, 50 of 58 Counties and many, many CA residents opposed the heinous so called “Small Cell” Bill, CA SB.649 — the bill that Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed on 10/15/17 for the reasons, above.

The Problem: In a Nutshell

  1. Each Close Proximity Microwave Radiation Antenna – Wireless Telecommunications Facility (CPMRA-WTF) will decrease the property values of the four closest homes by 20% to 30% or more!
  2. Mill Valley should not allow such a significant impact on our property values just to appease the business interests of AT&T Mobility, Verizon Wireless, T-Mobile or Sprint.
  3. Serious adverse health effects result from the around-the-clock RF microwave radiation exposures. RF microwave radiation is a toxic agent, particularly from Close Proximity Microwave Radiation Antennas. Thousands of peer reviewed studies, including by the US Government’s National Institute of Evironmental and Health Sciences (NIEHS), show clear evidence of harm caused by wireless exposures, including sigficant increases in brain tumors, heart tunors and DNA damage. Other studies conclude neurological problems, melatonin supporession, infertility, headaches, insomnia, confusion, weakness, autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and more from RF microwave radiation exposures at levels many thousands of times lower than our current Federal RF microwave radiation exposure guidelines — which are not protective. The proximity of these Close Proximity Microwave Radiation Antennas to our homes and schools dramatically increases the intensity of exposure.
  4. Are you relieved that one of these CPMRA-WTF installations is not in front of your home? Think again . . . if you let even one CPMRA installation in your neighborhood, AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint are coming to claim the remaining poles, so your house could be next.
  5. Mill Valley, therefore, MUST resist this unnecessary, profit-driven densified 4G/5G roll-out, adopt new Wireless Municipal Code and Zoing Ordinances to regulate the power output levels of all Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (WTFs) to ensure that the power output from the equipment for any WTFs has no chance to exceed a level that is necessary for telecomunications service (the ability to make a call or text). This would be no higher than -75 dBM for any individual 4G marketed frequency (i.e. 700 MHz, 1900 MHz or 2100 Mhz) and no higher than a power flux density of 100 µW/m² for all frequencies from 27 MHz through 3000 MHz. 5G millimeter wave frequencies will need similar power output limits.

For more detailed information:

  • Click this link to the KPIX News Broadcast entitled; “Consumer Watch: 5G Cellphone Towers Signal Renewed Concerns Over Impacts On Health“;
  • Click this link to the article by Merinda Teller MPH, PHD entitled; “Microwave Radiation Coming To A Lamppost Near You“.

What is this really about?

Greed. AT&T and Verizon want to compete against Comcast to offer a Wireless Video subscription service. The Telcos are simply too cheap to lay the Fiber Optic cables directly to our homes — an upgrade for which Californians were already charged $16 Billion by the Telcos, but the Telcos never delivered the Copper to Fiber Wireline upgrades. Despite having no proven significant gaps in Wireless telecommunciations service (a proven inability to place a call or text), the Telcos are attempting to misapply premption of local authority to force their way into neighborhoods to blast 4G and 5G RF microwave radiation into our homes from antennas attached to Electric Utility poles and city-owned light poles. This only serves the Telcos — not us! Corporate profits before health and well-being should never be permitted in our community.

This is How You Do It . . . Strength in Numbers

Attorney Patrick Shannon, founder of Hillsborough Families Against Cell Towers addressing his City Council regarding 16 proposed cell towers by Verizon/Crown Castle: “Do the right thing, protect your residents and avoid our City from becoming the place where democracy goes to die and cell towers metastasize.”

The Solution: Fiber to the Premises (FTTP)

The solution is both simple and easy — instead of more Wireless, install Wireline fiber optic cables to each home and business in Mill Valley, which will provide much faster, more secure, more reliable and much more energy-efficient transmission of Internet and video data. Doing so would preserve the unique character of Santa Cruz and prevent the private Telecom companies from shoving these cheap, ugly, intrusive, microwave-radiation-emitting CPMRA installations into our town.

Despite the promises of additional convenience and the unbridled hype for 5G and the “Internet of Things” (IoT), the primary duty of our elected officials is neither convenience, nor promised future economic growth, but to promote and preserve the health and welfare of Oakland’s residents, voters and taxpayers.

What you Can Do

To voice your opposition to Cell Towers being installed 10 to 50 feet from homes, please come to the Mill Valley and Marin County Planning Commission, City Council and Board of Supervisors Meetings. Speak or support others who will speak against these hazardous, visual blights that could blemish our beautiful neighborhoods for the rest of our lives. Please contact the Mill Valley and Marin County Planning staffs, Planning Commissioners, City Council Members and Board of Supervisors, listed below.

Take Action:

  • Email Senior Planner Danielle Staude ASAP – Ms. Staude is currently composing a new City of Mill Valley Ordinance for “Wireless Telecommunications Facilities” and wants feedback from Mill Valley residents.
  • Your voice matters in conveying the sentiments of the community so we encourage you to express your ideas of how you want broadband delivered in Mill Valley: Wired is much better than Wireless.
  • Email Danielle Staude at dstaude@cityofmillvalley.org

Read/Explore the Following:

Marin County Board of Supervisors

  • Board of Supervisors information and hearings and calendar
  • Damon Connolly, District 1, 415-473-7331
  • Katie Rice, District 2, 415-473-7331
  • Kathrin Sears, District 3, 415-473-7331
  • Dennis Rodoni, District 4, 415-473-7331
  • Judy Arnold, District 5, 415-473-7331

Marin County Planning Commissioners

  • Planning Commission information, hearings and calendar
  • Margaret Curran, At-Large
  • Don Dickenson, At-Large
  • David Paoli, District 1
  • Margot Biehle, District 2
  • John Eller, District 3
  • Christina Desser, District 4
  • Peter Theran, District 4

Mill Valley Planning Commissioners

  • Mill Valley Planning Commission information and meetings
  • Meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month in the City Hall Council Chambers. 26 Corte Madera Avenue, Mill Valley, CA 94941; 415-388-4033
  • Ricardo Capretta, Chair
  • Urban Carmel, Vice Chair
  • Anne Bolen, Commissioner
  • Kevin Skiles, Commissioner
  • Nate Bosshard, Commissioner

Mill Valley City Council

Mill Valley Planning Staff