CAMARILLO : Camrosa Water District Board Ends Dispute Over Radio Tower

Camrosa Water District directors have ended a three-year dispute over a radio tower that some Santa Rosa Valley residents consider an eyesore.

The directors voted Thursday to solicit bids to plant trees and bushes and install an irrigation system to “dress up the area” on Presilla Road where Camrosa plans to install a microwave dish atop a 60-foot radio tower, General Manager Richard Hajas said. The landscaping would cost about $35,000, Hajas said.

The radio tower stands next to a 2-million-gallon water tank that predates the houses in nearby Rancho Santa Rosa Estates. The tower allows Camrosa employees in the field to communicate with district headquarters and with each other.

The neighborhood dispute started in 1989 when Camrosa announced plans to install a new water storage tank next to an existing tank at the base of the Conejo Grade, Hajas said.

To do that, Camrosa must take down a 300-foot-high television tower that stands at the site of the new tank. That tower receives television signals that are sent by an underground cable to Leisure Village, Hajas said.

Camrosa proposed to replace the television tower with a microwave dish and place it atop the radio tower on Presilla Road.

Residents complained, Hajas said, and asked whether the tower could be lowered to be less unsightly.

Camrosa hired Microwave Data Systems of East Rochester, N.Y., to evaluate that suggestion. But the consultant said nearby trees might cause interference if the tower were lower, Hajas said.

So Camrosa agreed to landscape around the tower and the 2-million-gallon water tank next to it to make the area less of an eyesore.

Installing the dish is expected to cost $70,000.