While fellow council member Peter Maass and I were up in Sacramento attending a conference for newly elected city council members, our Planning and Zoning commission unanimously approved the most recently revised plan for an AT&T cell base station at 1035 San Pablo Ave. Caryl O’Keefe’s Albany Patch report is here. The vote was 4-0. P&Z commissioner David Arkin had to recuse himself because he lives within 500 feet of the project.

Our new P&Z commission is off to a good start, and from the reports I have heard, worked together well on the approval. Any appeal must occur within 14 days, so by the end of the month we will know for sure. Then AT&T can begin scheduling the project.

P&Z will be busy with a variety of cell phone issues this year, including reviewing a new proposal for an AT&T base station at the corner of Solano Ave. and Curtis St., and beginning the process of revising our current (and very problematic) cell phone ordinance.