While there are some pictures floating around, and the HOA survey has B&W pictures, it’s hard to get proper perspective of what the tree will look like to most residents in Three Springs.

The City of Westlake Village has released pictures prepared by City Staff (and is used on the HOA survey). You can see them, along with descriptions of how the pictures were taken.

Note: The fake tree is made darker here so you can see it, but in reality will be a more natural looking color to blend in. The fourth picture has an attempt to show what a more nominal coloring would look like.

Three Springs residents should have received the HOA survey in the mail today. Please fill this out this weekend, and return to the HOA. Unless there’s significant response, the survey will not be useful.

What does the antenna look like?

The antenna looks like an elm tree. A 45 foot tree would allow for up to 3 providers to have antennas on the single tree. Alternatively, a shorter tree may only provide service for T-Mobile and no others (such as Verizon, AT&T or Sprint). There’s the possibility of having three 25 ft trees, but that could reduce the chances of additional providers coming in if they don’t find that deal as attractive as sharing the single 45′ tree.

The taller the tree, the better the coverage. Also, the taller the tree, the more separation there is of RF energy from the ground. As a result, there’s a balancing act between the aesthetics of the height of the tree vs. the RF concerns that people may have.

The following photos have been prepared by Westlake Village City Staff. The ?tree? tower shown was taken from a photo of an actual mono-elm installation as proposed by T-Mobile. The first image shows no tree (for comparison), the second a 25 foot tree, while the third shows a 45 foot tree.

The trees were scaled for height, and the widths shown may be larger than on an actual installation. The color of the ?tree? is not accurate, and is darker than the actual coloration used. The color was made dark to help you see which was the fake tree.

The photo was taken from Grandoaks, and the image of the tree that was provided to the City by T-Mobile (the photo of the tree shown above) was scaled using Photoshop. The city does disclaim “While care was taken to produce as accurate an image as possible, the relative heights shown are approximate because the precise location of the ground placement of each tower could not be pinpointed due to the low viewing angle and existing landscaping on the site.”

If you look to the far left of the building, you’ll note a natural tree that appears to be approximately 45-50′ (the same or a bit taller than the largest of fake trees). It is lighter in color because it’s the real color.

No tree antenna (as it currently looks):

25′ Tree antenna:

45′ Tree antenna:

45′ Tree antenna with an attempt to show leaf color that blends:

The trees up close look like this (although coloring differs).