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No one is fooled by California's fake trees. That's not the point. · Best of: Features

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  No one is fooled by California's fake trees, that's not the point.
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  Written by Tessa McClean. This article is being read by an automated
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  voice generated by Everlett. At a design review board meeting in the
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  coastal California city of Galeta on august eleventh, residents both online and
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  in person expressed concern about a new fifty foot water tower. Going
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  up in town. It was too tall, it would block views, and
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  it could even be dangerous to the health of those around it.
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  Except it wasn't a real water towers The wooden structure would masquerade
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  as one type of infrastructure, when it was in fact another, an
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  A Tentee cell tower cleverly disguised, that would improve service in an
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  area rife with spotty reception. Since these concealed cell phone towers were
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  introduced in the early nineteen nineties, the debate over their going up
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  has played out countless times in towns across the US. Most often,
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  they're built anyway. A cell tower is installed somewhere in town, camouflaged
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  as a pine tree, a flagpole or a water tower, or even
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  hidden away in a building, often as mandated by city code. The
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  concealment works only to a point, and thus has been the subject
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  of ridicule, especially online, with one comedian referring to them as tree
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  drag. One company is responsible for much of that concealment, translating its
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  expertise crafting fake trees and rocks at theme parks like Disneyland into
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  a much more utilitarian line of business. From the Tree of Life
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  to Mono Pines. Valmont Larson began as the Larson Company in the
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  mid nineteen seventies, primarily building habitats for zoos. In The
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  nineteen eighties the company sought to capitalize on the success of the
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  theme park industry, and it quickly became well known for artificial rock
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  work and aquatic exhibits at places like SeaWorld. Fake trees were a
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  specialty. The company created Disney's Tree of Life in Orlando, and in
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  nineteen ninety two the company saw new potential in concealing a cell
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  tower in Colorado, resulting in the company's signature Monopene. The tall steel
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  pole is coated with textured faux bark and fake branches with needles
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  made of radio frequency transparent materials that hide antennas without blocking wireless
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  signals. That particular tree and pioneering design is still in use today.
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  In twenty nineteen Valmont acquired Larson and changed its name, though branches
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  have been replaced over the years. It was good timing for the
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  company, as the Telecommunications Act of nineteen ninety six made it much
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  harder to restrict the towers, so the business of disguising the flourished,
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  and The
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  industry boomed over the past thirty years. Today, most of Valmont Larson's
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  business for cell tower concealment is in California. Not only is California,
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  its biggest market, Mark Schmidt, the company's Director of concealing Products, said,
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  but more towns and jurisdictions across the State have added strict requirements
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  to make sure new infrastructure fits within a given community. California really
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  has been a leader in trying to mitigate the aesthetic impact in
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  its communities and in the environment, Schmidt said. The monopine is still
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  the most popular option by far, Schmidt said, but he's seen an
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  increasing demand for eucalyptus trees, especially in Southern California in recent years.
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  And while the technology that Valmont Larson is concealing has changed throughout
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  the years, for example, from three G to five G. A pine
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  tree still looks like a pine tree, he said. The objective isn't
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  necessarily to make the infrastructure invisible, it's to make it visually compatible
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  with its surroundings, Schmidt said. After a carrier has decided on a
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  site, it works with a company like Valmont Larson to design and
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  eventually build the structure. The process could take just six months, he
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  said, though he recently had a proposal take as long as seven
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  years. Permitting delays or public outcry can end up amending a project,
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  sure, but the company is also at the whim of the large
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  national cell carriers, who may have shifting priorities. Depending on what part
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  of the state a project is in, concealment restrictions can vary. In
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  Newport Beach, the tower has to be concealed as a flagpole. In
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  Laguna Beach, the concealment could take the form of a clock tower
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  or a windmill, among other options spelled out in the municipal code.
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  In Fairfield, accessory equipment must be folly screened or camouflaged using subdued
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  colors, earth tone, grey and or flat finish, and located in a
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  manner to minimize their visibility. Schmidt said a project the company completed
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  in Palm Springs had to be museum quality. High income areas often
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  demand the highest quality concealment. The wanted something that was not just
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  above average, but, you know, really exceptional in form and form factor,
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  Schmidt said. San Diego is the leader within the state in his
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  opinion. It has some very discerning requirements, and really cares about the
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  final product. He's right. San Diego has some of the most detailed
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  rules concerning cell tower concealment, mandating that the infrastructure use all reasonable
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  means to conceal or minimize visual effects. While the city prefers equipment
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  hidden within a building, if a company opts for a tree the
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  guidelines are numerous, and new faux palm towers have been banned. Our
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  goal isn't to fool anyone. In many places, especially the downtowns of
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  larger cities like San Francisco, you won't see any concealed towers at
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  all. Instead, the concealment is built into rooftops or wall mounted boxes
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  that an untrained eye wouldn't waste another second on. Another popular spot
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  is within church steeples, a prime revenue opportunity for religious institutions, since
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  the owners of the towers must lease the space from a business
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  or landowner. The surrounding environment dictates the maintenance requirements for the structure,
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  or even how they're built in the first place. Schmidt said UV
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  exposure and wind have the biggest effects, so tree foliage contains UV
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  stabilizers and other performance enhancing materials. Other structures might be fire resistant,
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  though not as many as you might think, given California's wildfire risk.
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  Each feature adds to The
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  cost of they concealment, which can vary, but is typically in the
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  hundreds of thousands of dollars. You know, a pine tree in one
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  area might be much more expensive than it is in another area,
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  just by virtue of the design characteristics, he said. A tree can
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  only look so realistic, though, when it has to tower above its
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  surroundings to ensure a good signal. The branches often look either too
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  perfect or not perfect enough. They're comical, Dana Cuff, a professor of
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  architecture and urbanism at UCLA, told S F Gate via email. The
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  trees look like they were crafted from scrap booking supplies. It's as
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  if the cell companies actually believed we might be fooled, she said.
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  But I like the disguises. Only an old school modernist would think
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  we should see technology in some pure form. If I could make
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  a suggestion for new forms of cell towers, let's set up a
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  public arts competition and really amp up their presence. Schmidt said that
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  a true disguise isn't the point. If we've done our job well,
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  you notice the tree, and not the engineering that went into it.
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  That's basically our bottom line, he said. But our goal isn't to
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  fool anybody to think that's really a tree. At Goleta's August meeting,
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  the design board ultimately voted unanimously against the project, citing many of
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  the same complaints neighbors had. It didn't fit the neighborhood given its
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  size, and the board recommended the city zoning administrator block it from
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  being built. It looks like a hot tub on stilts, Board Member
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  Martha De Gaces said.