Blythe Municipal Code Ch. 12.16 Underground Utilities

Whenever, in this chapter, the words or phrases defined in this section 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.

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 aboveground 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 12.16.030.

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

(Ord. 369 § 1, 1968)

The 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 electricity, communication or similar or associated services. The city clerk shall notify all affected property owners as shown on the last equalized assessment role, and utilities concerned by mail of the time and place of such hearing at least fifteen 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 council shall be final and conclusive.

(Ord. 501 § 1, 1978: Ord. 369 § 2, 1968)

A. If, any such public hearing as provided for in Section 12.16.020, the council finds that the public necessity, health, safety or welfare requires such removal and such underground installation, as set forth in Section 12.16.020, within a designated area, the council, by resolution, shall declare such designated area an underground utility district and order such removal and underground installation. Further, the city council shall determine that the public utility has., voluntarily agreed to pay over fifty percent of all costs of conversion, excluding costs of user's connections to underground electric or communication facilities.

B. Such resolution shall include a description of the area, comprising the underground utility district, and shall fix the time within which 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.

C. Pursuant to Street and Highway Code Section 5895.5 through 5896.8, proceedings for a conversion may also be initiated by a petition signed by not fewer than five owners of assessable land in the proposed assessment district, as shown by the last equalized assessment role used by the city, owning lands constituting more than one-half of the area of all assessable lands within the proposed assessment district. The petition shall be filed with the clerk, who thereupon shall check or cause said petition to be checked. If the petition is signed by the requisite number of qualified signers, the clerk shall execute a certificate of sufficiency and present said petition and certificate to the legislative body.

D. Upon presentation of the petition and certificate of sufficiency, or upon determination by the city council, pursuant to subsection A of this section, the legislative body may adopt a resolution declaring its intention to order the conversion.

(Ord. 501 § 2, 1978: Ord. 369 § 3, 1968)

A. Whenever the council creates an underground utility district and orders the removal of poles, overhead wires and associated overhead structures therein, as provided in Section 12.16.030, it shall be 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 Section 12.16.070, and for such reasonable time required to remove said facilities after said work has been performed, and except as otherwise provided in this chapter.

B. Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter, overhead facilities may be installed and maintained for a period, not to exceed ten days, without authority of the council in order to provide emergency service. The council may grant special permission, on such terms as the 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.

C. In any resolution adopted pursuant to Section 12.16.030, the city may authorize any or all of the following exceptions:

1. Any municipal facilities or equipment installed under the supervision and to the satisfaction of the city engineer;

2. Poles, or electroliers used exclusively for street lighting;

3. 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 associated overhead structures are not prohibited;

4. 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 volts;

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

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

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

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

(Ord. 369 §§ 4, 5, 6, 1968)

A. Within ten days after the effective date of a resolution adopted pursuant to Section 12.16.030, the city clerk shall notify all affected utilities and all persons owning real property within the district created by said resolution of the adoption of the resolution. 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 Section 12.16.030, together with a copy of the ordinance codified in this chapter, to affected property owners as such are shown on the last equalized assessment roll and to the affected utilities.

(Ord. 369 § 7, 1968)

If underground construction is necessary to provide utility service within a district created by any resolution adopted pursuant to Section 12.16.030, 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.

(Ord. 369 § 8, 1968)

A. 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 12.16.060 and the termination facility on or within said building or structure being served.

B. In the event any person owning, operating, leasing, occupying or renting said property does not comply with the provisions of subsection A of this section within the time provided for in the resolution enacted pursuant to Section 12.16.030, the city engineer shall post written notice on the property being served and, thirty days thereafter, may authorize the disconnection and removal of any and all overhead service wires and associated facilities supplying utility service to said property.

C. 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 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 benefited and become a lien upon such property.

D. If, upon the expiration of the thirty-day period, the required underground facilities have not been provided or upon receipt of a written request by the owner to do so, the city engineer shall forthwith proceed to do the work; provided, however, if such premises are unoccupied and no electric or communications services are being furnished thereto, the city engineer, in lieu of providing the required underground facilities, shall have the authority to order the disconnection and removal of any and all overhead service wires and associated facilities supplying utility services to the property. Upon completion of the work by the city engineer, he 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 said cost is to be assessed. The council shall thereupon fix a time and place for hearing of protests against the assessment of the cost of such work upon such premises, which said time shall be not less than ten days thereafter.

E. The city engineer, upon the time for hearing such protests having been fixed, forthwith shall give a notice in writing to the person in possession of such premises, and a notice in writing to the owner thereof, in the manner provided in Section 12.16.050 for the giving of the notice to provide the required underground facilities, of the time and place that the 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.

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

G. If any assessment is not paid within five days after its confirmation by the 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 the properties on which the assessment has not been paid, and said 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 property taxes are due and payable, and, if not paid when due and payable, shall bear interest at the rate of six percent per year.

(Ord. 501 § 3, 1978; Ord. 369 § 9, 1968)

The city shall remove, at its own expense, all city-owned equipment from all poles required to be removed under the provisions of this chapter, 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 12.16.030.

(Ord. 369 § 10, 1968)

In the event that any act required by this chapter or by a resolution adopted pursuant to Section 12.16.030 cannot be performed within the time provided on account of shortage of materials, war, restraint by public authorities, strikes, labor disturbances, civil 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.

(Ord. 369 § 11, 1968)

It is unlawful for any person to violate any provision or to fail to comply with any of the requirements of this chapter. Any person violating any provision of this chapter or failing to comply with any of its requirements shall be decreed guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction thereof, shall be punished as provided in Chapter 1.24. Each such person shall be deemed guilty of a separate offense for each day during any portion of which any violation of any of the provisions of this chapter is committed, continued or permitted by such person, and shall be punishable therefor as provided for in this chapter.

(Ord. 369 § 12, 1968)