Residents to assess utility options

Alicia Robinson

The city is fast becoming a mole’s nightmare, with more and more

utility lines going underground.

The City Council on Tuesday will hold public hearings about

whether to establish two of the largest underground utility

assessment districts in the city, and residents will have the chance

to vote for or against it. The special tax assessment districts are

created to charge residents for the cost of burying utility lines in

their neighborhoods.

The projects are requested by residents who must submit a petition

to the city, which then holds a public vote for affected property

owners. Residents are taxed for the work based on their property

values.

One of the proposed utility districts is in the Newport Shores

neighborhood and will include 550 properties, city Associate Engineer

Patrick Arciniega said. The cost to put utilities underground there

will be $6.6 million. Each property owner will be charged between

$3,466 and $69,281 with the average assessment at $12,487.

The other district includes more than 600 lots in West Newport,

from 56th Street to the northern part of the peninsula, Arciniega

said. That utility burial work will cost $10.1 million with

assessments ranging from $8,053 to $297,964 and the average cost at

$15,339.

“They’re huge,” Arciniega said of the districts compared with

other utility-burial projects. “Typically, projects that the city has

normally done have been 200 properties or less.”

If the districts’ residents approve the assessments Tuesday, the

city will collect money from residents who choose to pay up front and

sell bonds to cover residents who want to spread payments over 15

years. Southern California Edison power company will contract out the

work, which Arciniega said will be finished by the end of May 2005.

Construction is expected to last from fall to spring. Crews will

close off work areas in small sections during the day and reopen them

at night.

“During the time of the year that they’re working, I think there

will be minimal disruption [to residents],” he said.

Some property owners have opposed previous underground utility

projects. Property owners in the Balboa business district voted down

the creation of an assessment district in January but approved it in

April after Mayor Tod Ridgeway pushed to revive it.

“I think it’s a great thing,” City Councilman Steve Rosansky said

of the proposed utility-line burial. Both projects are in the

district he represents, but he said he will recuse himself from any

council votes on them because he owns three properties that will be

affected.

“I know there’s concerns among some of the residents about the

costs of the undergrounding, but in the long run I think it’ll

improve the property values at least as much as the cost if not

more,” he said. “Speaking as a resident, I’m certainly in favor of

it.”

Community leaders appear confident the assessment districts will

be approved, Rosansky said. He added that the Newport Shores project

also will improve asphalt alleyways in poor condition by replacing

them with concrete.

Also on Tuesday, council members will vote on whether to front the

money to design utility-burial projects farther south on the Balboa

Peninsula.

The utility assessment-district projects will be discussed during

the City Council meeting, which begins at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the

council chambers, 3300 Newport Blvd.