Chapter 13.05 — UNDERGROUND UTILITY LINES

A. “Service Lines” are defined for the purposes of this Chapter as those electrical, telephone, cable or other utility conductors that extend from the "distribution lines" to the building, structure or improvement which consumes or uses the utility service.

B. “Distribution Lines” are defined for the purposes of this Chapter as those electrical utility conductors which are energized at thirty- four thousand five hundred (34,500) volts or less, telephone, cable or other utility lines that supply utility product to “service lines.”

C. “Development” is defined for the purposes of this Chapter as the construction or the enlargement of any primary use building.

Except as provided in Section 13.05.040, underground installation is required for all electrical lines energized at twenty-four thousand five hundred (24,500) volts or less, telephone, cable, antenna television and similar service wires or cables which:

A. Provide direct service to the property being developed; or

B. Are existing and located within the boundaries being developed; or

C. Are existing between the property line and the centerline of the peripheral streets of the property being developed; or

D. Are located along or within six (6) feet of the lot lines of the property being developed; or

E. Are located within the existing or required right-of-way for the project; or

F. Are located as a result of a project.

Except as otherwise provided in this Chapter, all new service and distribution lines shall be constructed underground.

A. The following exceptions shall apply, when and only when, a property owner signs an agreement agreeing not to protest the formation of a municipal underground utility district and further agreeing to prepare said property to accept underground utility lines in accordance with the applicable rules of the utility involved. Said agreement shall be recorded as an encumbrance against the land.

1. Existing overhead distribution lines will be permitted to remain in areas where these distribution lines have existing overhead

service lines to adjacent lots.

2. Existing overhead distribution lines will be permitted to remain for developments consisting of three (3) lots or less that do not

exceed six hundred (600) feet of frontage.

B. The enlargement of fifty percent (50%) or less of the total square footage of industrial or commercial buildings shall not be subject to any of the requirements of this Chapter.

Temporary utilities along with the necessary poles, wires and cables may be permitted for the period during which a valid building permit has been issued or for temporary uses which comply with the requirements of the zoning ordinance, building code and other applicable regulations.

Appurtenances and associated equipment including, but not limited to, surface mounted transformers and switches, pedestal mounted terminal boxes and meter cabinets, and concealed ducts in an underground system may be placed above ground unless the project is conditioned otherwise. Utility service poles may be placed in the area within six (6) feet of the rear lot line of the property to be developed where overhead lines exist for the sole purpose of terminating underground facilities.

If technology or economics of scale require or permit a delay in the underground installation required in the application of this Chapter, then the cost of undergrounding shall be estimated by the City; and a cash deposit in the estimated amount shall be deposited with the City. This cash deposit shall be placed into an underground utility fund and used solely for the purpose of undergrounding distribution lines as required by this Chapter throughout the City.

Chapter 13.10

UNDERGROUND UTILITY FACILITIES

Sections:

13.10.010 Purpose and Intent

13.10.020 Definitions

13.10.030 Public Hearing

13.10.040 Designation of Districts by Resolution

13.10.050 Unlawful Acts

13.10.060 Emergency or Unusual Circumstances

13.10.070 Exceptions

13.10.080 Notice to Property Owners and Utility Companies

13.10.090 Responsibility of Utility Companies

13.10.100 Property Owner Responsibility

13.10.110 Service of Notice

13.10.120 Contents of Notice

13.10.130 Failure to Provide Facilities - Work Completion - Report - Hearing

13.10.140 Hearing - Notice

13.10.150 Hearing - City Council Decision

13.10.160 Assessment - Lien

13.10.170 Responsibility of City

13.10.180 Extension of Time

13.10.190 Underground Utility District No. 1

It is the purpose and intent of this Chapter to provide for the orderly removal of existing overhead facilities and the construction of new underground facilities by providing a procedure by which the Council may create an underground utility district upon finding that it is in the public interest to do so.

Wherever in this Chapter the words or phrases hereinafter in this Section defined are used, they shall have the respective meanings assigned to them in the following definitions:

A. “Commission” means the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California.

B. “Person” means and includes individuals, firms, corporations, partnerships, and their agents and employees;

C. “Poles, Overhead Wires and Associated Overhead Structures” means poles, towers, supports, wires, conductors, guys, stubs, platforms, crossarms, braces, transformers, insulators, cutouts, switches, communication circuits, appliances, attachments and appurtenances located above ground within a district and used or useful in supplying electric, communication or similar or associated service;

D. “Underground Utility District” or “District” means that area in the City within which poles, overhead wires and associated overhead structures are prohibited as such area is described in a resolution adopted pursuant to the provisions of Section 13.10.040.

E. “Utility” includes all persons or entities supplying electric, communication or similar or associated service by means of electrical materials or devices.

A. The City Council may from time to time call public hearings to ascertain whether the public necessity, health, safety or welfare requires the removal of poles, overhead wires and associated overhead structures within designated areas of the City and the underground installation of wires and facilities for supplying electric, communication or similar or associated service. The City Clerk shall notify all affected property owners as shown on the last equalized assessment roll and utilities concerned by mail of the time and place of such hearings at least fifteen (15) days prior to the date thereof. Each such hearing shall be open to the public and may be continued from time to time. At each such hearing, all persons interested shall be given an opportunity to be heard. The decision of the City Council shall be final and conclusive.

B. Prior to holding such public hearing, the City Engineer shall consult with all affected utilities and shall prepare a report for submission at such hearing containing, among other information, the extent of such utilities’ participation and estimates of the total costs to the City and affected property owners. Such reports shall contain an estimate of the time required to complete such underground

installation and removal of overhead facilities.

If, after any such public hearing, the City Council finds that the public necessity, health, safety or welfare requires such removal and such underground installation within a designated area, the City Council shall, by resolution, declare such designated area an underground utility district and include a description of the area comprising such district and shall fix the time within which such removal and underground installation shall be accomplished and within which affected property owners must be ready to receive underground service. A reasonable time shall be allowed for such removal and underground installation, having due regard for the availability of labor, materials and equipment necessary for such removal and for the installation of such underground facilities as may be occasioned thereby.

Whenever the City Council creates an underground utility district and orders the removal of poles, overhead wires and associated overhead structures therein as provided in Section 13.10.040, it is unlawful for any person or utility to erect, construct, place, keep, maintain, continue, employ or operate poles, overhead wires and associated overhead structures in the district after the date when said overhead facilities are required to be removed by such resolution, except as said overhead facilities may be required to furnish service to an owner or occupant of property prior to the performance by such owner or occupant of the underground work necessary for such owner or occupant to continue to receive utility service as provided in Sections 13.10.100 through 13.10.160, and for such reasonable time required to remove said facilities after said work has been performed, and except as otherwise provided in this Chapter.

Notwithstanding the provisions of this Chapter, overhead facilities may be installed and maintained for a period, not to exceed ten (1) days, without authority of the City Council in order to provide emergency service. The City Council may grant special permission, on such terms as the City Council may deem appropriate, in cases of unusual circumstances, without discrimination as to any person or utility, to erect, construct, install, maintain, use or operate poles, overhead wires and associated overhead structures.

In any resolution adopted pursuant to Section 13.10.040, the City may authorize any or all of the following exceptions:

A. Any municipal facilities or equipment installed under the supervision and to the satisfaction of the City Engineer;

B. Poles or electroliers used exclusively for street lighting;

C. Overhead wires (exclusive of supporting structures) crossing any portion of a district within which overhead wires have been prohibited or connecting to buildings on the perimeter of a district, when such wires originate in an area from which poles, overhead wires and associates overhead structures are not prohibited;

D. Poles, overhead wires and associated overhead structures used for the transmission of electric energy at nominal voltages in excess of thirty-four thousand five hundred (34,500) volts;

E. Overhead wires attached to the exterior surface of a building by means of a bracket or other fixture and extending from one (1) location on the building to another location of the same building or to an adjacent building without crossing any public street;

F. Antennae, associated equipment and supporting structures, used by a utility for furnishing communication services;

G. Equipment appurtenant to underground facilities, such as surface mounted transformers and switches, pedestal mounted terminal boxes and meter cabinets and concealed ducts;

H. Temporary poles, overhead wires and associated overhead structures used or to be used in conjunction with construction projects.

A. Within thirty (30) days after the effective date of a resolution adopted pursuant to Section13.10.040, the City Clerk shall notify all affected utilities and all persons owning real property within the district created by said resolution of the adoption thereof. The City Clerk shall further notify such affected property owners of the necessity that, if they or any person occupying such property desire to continue to receive electric, communication, or similar or associated service, they or such occupant, shall provide all necessary facility changes on their premises so as to receive such service from the lines of the supplying utility or utilities at a new location.

B. Notification by the City Clerk shall be made by mailing a copy of the resolution adopted pursuant to Section13.10.040, together with a copy of this Chapter, to affected property owners as such are shown on the last equalized assessment roll and to the affected utilities.

If underground construction is necessary to provide utility service within a district created by any resolution adopted pursuant to Section 13.10.040, the supplying utility shall furnish that portion of the conduits, conductors and associated equipment required to be furnished by it under its applicable rules, regulations and tariffs on file with the commission.

Every person owning, operating, leasing, occupying or renting a building or structure within a district shall construct and provide that portion of the service connection on his property between the facilities referred to in Section 13.10.090 and the termination facility on or

within said building or structure being served. If the above is not accomplished by any person within the time provided for in the resolution enacted pursuant to Section 13.10.040, the City Engineer shall give notice in writing to the owner thereof as shown on the last equalized assessment roll to provide the required underground facilities within thirty (30) days after receipt of such notice.

The notice to provide the required underground facilities may be given either by personal service or by mail. In case of service by mail, the notice must be deposited in the United States mail in a sealed envelope with postage prepaid, addressed to the person in possession of such premises at such premises; and the notice must be addressed to the owner thereof as such owner’s name appears and must be addressed to such owner’s last known address as the same appears on the last equalized assessment roll, and when no address appears, to General Delivery, City of Adelanto. If notice is given by mail, such notice shall be deemed to have been received by the person to whom it has been sent within forty-eight (48) hours after the mailing thereof. If notice is given by mail to either the owner or occupant of such premises, the City Engineer shall, within forty-eight (48) hours after the mailing thereof, cause a copy thereof, printed on a card not less than eight (8) inches by ten (10) inches in size, to be posted in a conspicuous place on said premises.

The notice given by the City Engineer to provide the required underground facilities shall particularly specify what work is required to be done and shall state that if said work is not completed within thirty (30) days after receipt of such notice, the City Engineer will provide such required underground facilities, in which case the cost and expense thereof will be assessed against the property benefitted and become a lien upon such property.

If upon expiration of the thirty (30) day period the said required underground facilities have not been provided, the City Engineer shall forthwith proceed to do the work with his own force or may let a contract for the work, provided however, if such premises are unoccupied and no electric or communications services are being furnished thereto, the City Engineer shall in lieu of providing the required underground facilities, have the authority to order the disconnection and removal of any and all overhead service wires and associated facilities supplying utility service to said property. Upon completion of the work by the City Engineer, the City Engineer shall file a written report with the City Council setting forth the fact that the required underground facilities have been provided and the cost thereof, together with a legal description of the property against which such cost is to be assessed. The City Council shall thereupon fix a time and place for hearing protests against the assessment of the cost of such work upon such premises, which said time shall not be less than ten (10) days thereafter.

The City Engineer shall forthwith, upon the time for hearing such protests having been fixed, give a notice in writing to the person in possession of such premises, and a notice in writing thereof to the owner thereof, in the manner hereinabove provided for the giving of the notice to provide the required underground facilities, of the time and place that the City Council will pass upon such report and will hear protests against such assessment. Such notice shall also set forth the amount of the proposed assessment.

Upon the date and hour set for the hearing of protests, the City Council shall hear and consider the report and all protests, if there be any, and then proceed to affirm, modify or reject the assessment.

If any assessment is not paid within ten (10) days after its confirmation by the City Council, the amount of the assessment shall become a lien upon the property against which the assessment is made by the City Engineer; and the City Engineer is directed to turn over to the assessor and tax collector a notice of lien on each of said properties on which the assessment has not been paid, and the assessor and tax collector shall add the amount of said assessment to the next regular bill for taxes levied against the premises upon which said assessment was not paid. Said assessment shall be due and payable at the same time as said property taxes are due and payable, and if not paid when due and payable, shall bear interest at the rate of ten percent (10%) per annum.

The City shall remove at its own expense all City-owned equipment from all poles required to be removed hereunder in ample time to enable the owner or user of such poles to remove the same within the time specified in the resolution enacted pursuant to Section 13.10.040.

In the event that any act required by this Chapter or by a resolution adopted pursuant to Section13.10.040 cannot be performed within the time provided on account of shortage of materials, war, restraint by public authorities, strikes, labor disturbances, civil disobedience or any other circumstances beyond the control of the actor, then the time within which such act will be accomplished shall be extended for a period equivalent to the time of such limitation.

The following area shall constitute and be known as the Adelanto Underground Utility District No. 1: That portion of a strip of land along the easterly sixty-two (62) feet of the S1/2 of the NE1/4 of Section 21 Township 5 N 5W, beginning at a point at the intersecting centerlines Palmdale Road (Highway 18) and Highway 395, thence northerly along the Highway 395 to a point at the intersection of the

centerlines of Begonia Street and Highway 395.

[Ord. No. 478, § 1, 8/27/08]