By Elizabeth Cloutman

Although Los Altos Hills is a town known for its strict rules against structures that might disturb its residents’ panoramic views and its rural ambiance, some might consider Sprint PCS’s proposal for concealing three cellular phone antennas within a 35-foot-tall flagpole on the grounds of St. Luke’s Chapel as particularly innovative.

“I think the idea of putting a cell tower in a flagpole is brilliant, and I’m glad for the new technology,” said Planning Commissioner Eric Clow before the commission approved Sprint’s application Thursday evening.

Ivan Tjoe, a Sprint zoning consultant, noted, “Other carriers’ (equipment) can’t be shrunken into a flagpole antenna. It’s a leading technology.” The flagpole diameter is only about eight or nine inches, he said.

Amazingly, the flagpole is not the first cellular antenna located on St. Luke’s property. St. Luke’s is the site of the city’s first schoolhouse, built at the turn of the century in 1907.

In 1997, the city council approved a Pacific Bell wireless communication antenna within the Episcopal church’s steeple.

In a staff report, City Planner Carl Cahill wrote that the facility was consistent with town policy because it is on a nonresidential site that already has a communication antenna and also because its visual impacts are minimized, due to its location.

While Sprint originally planned to locate the antenna flagpole atop an existing secondary structure on the church grounds to meet the town requirements for a 30-foot setback, resident Sandra Humphries suggested the planning commission grant a variance and place the flagpole on the site of the existing flagpole, which is behind the secondary building, even though the existing pole has a noncomplying setback.

“It would be so much better mitigated,” she said.

Tjoe agreed. “That would work even better for us.” Commissioners granted the variance.

The Sprint facility also includes six equipment cabinets, which will be fenced and screened by vegetation, Cahill’s report stated.