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The City Council extended a ban on telecommunications antennae Tuesday for six months in residential areas, but modified the moratorium to allow antenna installation in west Berkeley and downtown. 

The council adopted the extended ban after hearing from a host of telecommunications representatives, mostly lawyers who argued against the ban and residents who said they are worried about health risks posed by radio frequency radiation emitted by the antennae. The council approved the moratorium 8-1 with Councilmember Polly Armstrong voting in opposition. 

“I felt that we had to choose on the side of the neighbors over the companies,” said Councilmember Mim Hawley. 

The council adopted a 45-day, citywide moratorium Dec. 19 after hearing from neighbors who protested the approval of 12 Nextel antennae on the roof of the Oaks Theater on Solano Avenue. 

The new moratorium allows antenna installation in the manufacturing, mixed use and light industrial districts and the downtown area. The majority of the allowable area begins at Interstate 80 and goes east ranging from three to nine blocks.  

Antenna installation is also still allowed in the downtown area bounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Way, University and Durant avenues and Oxford Street. In addition, no antenna can be installed anywhere within 300 feet of a residential use structure. 

Armstrong said she would vote against the moratorium because she thought it was unfair to Nextel. “They went through the process and got the approval. I think they should get the permit,” she said. 

Councilmember Kriss Worthington voted for the moratorium despite his opinion that it would result in a lawsuit. “I don’t believe the city needs a moratorium,” he said. “But since it was a foregone conclusion I thought it should be the fairest moratorium possible.” 

Worthington added the language calling for the 300 foot buffer for residences.  

Nextel, which received approval from the Zoning Adjustments Board last November to install the rooftop antennae, were included in the moratorium despite aggressive lobbying to be exempted. Nextel attorney David Trotter suggested the city was “on thin ice” and may be violating the 1996 Telecommunications Act. 

Mayor Shirley Dean said on Wednesday that she was more concerned about the city’s interests than lawsuits.  

“You have to do what’s right for the city and what was right for the city was to enact a moratorium,” she said. “In the long run it will be better for the telecommunication providers because once there’s an ordinance they’ll know just what they can and can’t do.” 

The City Council held a closed session meeting with staff from the City Attorney’s Office prior to the City Council meeting to discuss the possibility of a lawsuit by Nextel. Nextel had said the city would violate state and federal law if the Oaks Theater permit were included in the moratorium. 

A telecommunications ordinance will eventually take the place of the moratorium. 

Vivian Kahn, deputy director of the Planning and Development Department said she has already begun to receive information from the telecommunications companies and residents who want to have input on the permanent antenna ordinance. “I’ve let both sides know that I am always interested in whatever information they have,” she said. 

President of the Renaissance Rialto, Allen Michaan, who rents the Oaks Theater, said he had nothing to do with the arrangement between Nextel and the building’s owner. He urged the City Council to include the 12-Nextel antennas in the moratorium because the large numbers of theatergoers who have complained about the proposed installation. 

“This has really stirred things up,” he said. “We’re struggling there, it’s not easy to run a two-screen theater when everybody else has 18 screens.”