Parent organizer Kerri DeNies is asking for donations to fund a telecommunications attorney to stop the project to add two towers to the youth field.

Holding signs and chanting, about 90 people gathered April 11 at Cliffridge Park to protest a proposed set of 5G wireless equipment.

Led by Kerri DeNies, a parent of a student at adjacent Torrey Pines Elementary, the protest also called on attendees to sign a petition and donate to fund a telecommunications attorney to aid the fight.

Dish Wireless is proposing two new, 30-foot 5G cell towers to replace two older, decommissioned, 20-foot poles on the Cliffridge Park baseball fields, where there is already an active AT&T tower.

The new towers would contain three antennas and 12-foot canisters.

The project also proposes a 9-by-12-foot equipment enclosure with a GPS unit, wall-mounted condenser units and underground cables.

The proposal concerns DeNies and the other parents present at the rally as a 2020 New Hampshire State Commission on 5G Health and Environment findings recommended cell towers have a 1,640-foot setback from sensitive groups, adding wireless radiation leads to oxidative stress, which causes chronic inflammation leading to a host of serious diseases and conditions.

One of the proposed towers would be located just 64 feet from the TPES property line, DeNies said, while the other tower would sit about 267 feet from the Dan McKinney Family YMCA, which also houses a preschool. 

And the field itself is home to the La Jolla Youth Baseball League, which hosts hundreds of children weekly for practices and games, she said. 

“I care deeply about protecting the children, families and neighbors who use this park and school every day,” DeNies said, noting she is very concerned about the “growing concentration of wireless infrastructure near vulnerable populations.”

Danger signs are already posted on the existing tower, she said, with warnings that “immediate, immediate and serious injury could occur on contact.”

DeNies urged parents to sign a “Stop the Build” petition and donate to hire legal counsel; she later told lajolla.ca she has raised $2,000 towards the $10,000 goal.

“We demand better than a rushed, risky and unnecessary project,” DeNies said to the crowd before they began chanting in protest. “Let’s protect our kids. Let’s protect our park and let’s make it clear these towers are not welcome here.”