As a City, public safety is a core priority and when residents and public safety personnel express concerns, we take them very seriously. Over the last few years, residents east of Ravinia Festival have reported to us that they are often unable to use their cell phones on popular concert nights, a particularly disconcerting issue for those with no landline in emergency situations.
In addition, the Fire Department has expressed concern that on busy Ravinia nights paramedics in ambulances cannot get telemetry signals (EKG's) sent to Highland Park Hospital until they are near Lincoln School, losing critical minutes for communication with the Hospital's Emergency Room.
In response, over a year ago, the Highland Park Fire and Police Chiefs, City Manager and I approached Ravinia Festival with these concerns.
What we learned is that on busy nights, the cell phone activity of Ravinia's 15,000 or more patrons overwhelms nearby cell towers (which on average have the capacity to handle the needs of 5,000 cell phones).
In response, Ravinia worked with us to evaluate ways to mitigate data congestion. Following
numerous meetings, Ravinia and City staff concluded that the best solution would be a Distributed Antenna System (DAS). This system of antennas would point inward to Ravinia's property and automatically intercept cell service from Ravinia's guests, so their search for a signal would never reach the towers that serve Highland Park, freeing up bandwidth for first responders, residents and local businesses.
To install the DAS, Ravinia will need to build a new building on its property. The West Parking Lot was identified as the best option for the new building. This planned construction would be at least 250 feet from the nearest residence, with landscaping to make it unlikely that it would even be seen from the street. The proposed facility meets the industry standard in terms of size and service. It will work with a system of small antennas placed strategically around the Ravinia Festival grounds, with an output similar to that of a network router built for home use.
We originally asked Ravinia to have the system in place as soon as possible - by the start of the 2015 season. However, resident questions arose and needed to be addressed. (These are further detailed below.*) To address these questions, the Plan and Design Commission continued the hearings and the proposed DAS project will return to the
Plan and Design Commission at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 20, in City Council Chambers. I will be there, along with the Chiefs of Police and Fire and other Council members.
Ravinia is a tremendous asset to our community and works well with the City. When public safety issues arise, they must be addressed. As we are more dependent on our cell phones, we inadvertently create technology obstacles. In this case, the temporary increase in phone use on busy nights demands a solution. Together, we've come up with a plan to help emergency communications, reconnect residents who are unable to get a cell signal, and ease data congestion around Ravinia Park.
I look forward to a productive discussion October 20 on behalf of our community and our public safety.
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*Neighborhood concerns: Concerns from nearby neighbors varied from noise to questioning the rationale. In particular, questions arose about the noise that the DAS would create. According to plans, the noise level at the property line would measure at 36 decibels. That compares to a wristwatch ticking at 20 decibels, a normal conversation at 60, and a lawn mower at 100. This is within the permissible range under the City Noise Ordinance.
People also asked if Ravinia was doing the project to generate revenue. Again, the purpose of the request is to alleviate cellular data congestion to protect public safety.
I, along with others, asked why the DAS would have to operate all year, not just in the summer. Apparently, wireless carriers do not have the capacity to shut down the DAS once it is up because it has an impact on other macro towers, and turning off the DAS could make it difficult to locate the origination of 9-1-1 calls.
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