CORONA DEL MAR TODAY

Crystal Cove Utility Pole Could Be Moved, Company Officials Say

A 30-foot utility pole installed this spring near the Shake Shack, overlooking Crystal Cove State Beach, could be removed and placed on the non-coastal side of Coast Highway, NextG officials have said.

The pole came under public scrutiny at a City Council meeting held earlier this month, when a state park superintendent testified at a public hearing about whether to allow NextG to add more poles along Coast Highway. The City Council denied the company permission for five poles; read our story here.

At that meeting, Mayor Keith Curry told NextG representatives, “I find that the eagerness of your firm to put poles in the shadow of Crystal Cove Park and at El Moro to be particularly insensitive and incompatible with our community values.”

The pole next to Crystal Cove was installed after NextG received a permit in February from the California Department of Transportation, which has jurisdiction there, said Patrick S. Ryan, NextG’s vice president of government relations and regulatory affairs.

The company also is seeking a Coastal Commission permit, he said. A sign on the pole states that the permit is pending, and Coastal Commission staff member John Delarroz said this week that the permit application was incomplete.

Today, however, Ryan said that NextG is submitting new permit applications to CalTrans and to the Coastal Commission, seeking permission to move the pole across the street where it would no longer block ocean views. The pole, which will have an antenna affixed, is part of a NextG project to boost connectivity among wireless service providers by installing fiber optic cables and antennas throughout the area.

“We’re more than happy to move it across the street,” Ryan said.

NextG officials continue to consider their options after the city declined issuing permission for the poles along Coast Highway, including one that would have been placed in front of the Cameo Highlands neighborhood.

Ryan said NextG had been granted permission and performed underground work in Newport Beach, laying fiber optic cables.

“Those fiber optic cables are expensive to install,” he said. “We’re in a bind as well.” The city’s fee of $1,500 per month to use existing utility poles is “just not reasonable,” he said.

Read our original story here.