Hillsborough Municipal Code Ch. 13.40 Underground Utility Districts

Whenever the words or phrases defined in this section are used in this chapter, they shall have the respective meanings assigned to them in the following definitions:

1. "Commission" means the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California.

2. "District" means an underground utility district.

3. "Overhead facilities" are defined in item 5 of this section.

4. "Person" means individuals, firms, corporations, partnerships, and their agents and employees.

5. "Poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures" (sometimes referred to collectively as "overhead facilities") 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.

6. "Property owner" or "property owners" means the owner(s) of the property as shown on the last equalized assessment roll.

7. "Resolution" means a resolution adopted pursuant to section 13.40.030.

8. "Underground facilities" means wires and facilities, located underground, for supplying electrical, communication, or similar or associated service.

9. "Underground utility district" means that area in town, described in a resolution, within which poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures are prohibited.

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

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)

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 town and the underground installation of wires and facilities for supplying electrical, communication, or similar or associated service. At least fifteen days prior to the date of any hearing, the city clerk shall mail notice to all affected property owners (and, if a property owner's address is other than the property address, to the occupant of the property as well, addressed by name, if known, and otherwise to "Occupant") and all affected utilities of the date, time, and place of the hearing. Each hearing shall be open to the public and may be continued from time to time. At the hearing all interested persons shall be given an opportunity to be heard. The decision of the city council shall be final and conclusive.

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)

A. If, after the public hearing, the city council finds that the public necessity, health, safety, or welfare requires the removal of overhead facilities and the installation of underground facilities within a designated area, the city council shall, by resolution, declare the designated area an underground utility district and order such removal and underground installation. The resolution shall include a description of the area comprising the 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. The city council shall allow a reasonable time for such removal and underground installation, having due regard for the availability of necessary labor, materials, and equipment.

B. Notwithstanding the foregoing, the city council shall not designate any underground utility district hereunder unless:

1. PG&E's Tariff Rule 20A credit funds are available to finance fully the town's cost of removing the overhead facilities and installing the underground facilities, including, but not limited to, the cost of any extra trenching and conduit from the street to the private terminal box; and

2. There will be no cost to any owner of property within the underground utility district associated with the removal of overhead facilities and installation of underground facilities, or, if there is any such cost, there is no objection to the creation of the district from any property owner subject to such cost.

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)

Whenever the city council has by resolution created an underground utility district and ordered the removal of overhead facilities from the district, it shall be unlawful for any person or utility to erect, construct, place, keep, maintain, continue, employ, or operate any overhead facilities in the district after the date when the overhead facilities are required by the resolution to be removed except to the extent that such date is extended pursuant to Section 13.40.110.

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)

Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter, upon approval by the public works director, overhead facilities may be installed and maintained for no longer than ten days, without authority of the city council, in order to provide emergency service. In such cases, the public works director's approval to erect, construct, install, maintain, use, or operate poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures shall be on such terms as the public works director may deem appropriate and without discrimination as to any person or utility.

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)

Any resolution hereunder shall not apply to the following types of facilities (unless otherwise provided in the resolution):

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; provided, however, that any such wires shall be installed in a manner to minimize visual impact to the maximum extent practicable.

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, temporary overhead wires, and associated temporary overheard structures used or to be used during the course of and in conjunction with construction projects.

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)

Within ten days after the effective date of a resolution, the city clerk shall mail a copy of the resolution and a copy of the enabling ordinance to all affected utilities and all persons owning real property within the district created by the resolution (and, if a property owner's address is other than the property address, to the occupant of the property as well, addressed by name, if known, and otherwise to "Occupant"). In the same mailing, the city clerk shall notify the affected property owners that if any property owner or any person occupying the property desires to continue to receive electric, communication, or similar or associated service, the property owner or occupant shall provide all necessary facility changes on the premises so as to receive the service from the lines of the supplying utility or utilities at a new location, subject to applicable rules, regulations and tariffs of the respective utility or utilities on file with the commission.

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)

If underground construction is necessary to provide utility service within a district created by a resolution, 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. 647 § 1, 2003)

A. All persons owning, operating, leasing, occupying, or renting a building or structure within a district shall perform the work on their premises necessary to receive underground utility service, all in accordance with applicable rules, regulations and tariffs of the applicable utility or utilities on file with the commission and to the requirements of state laws and town ordinances. If any person does not comply with the above requirement within the time provided in the resolution, the city engineer shall give written notice to the person in possession of the premises and to the owner thereof to perform such work within one hundred fifty days after receipt of the notice.

B. The notice set forth in paragraph A of this section may be given either by personal service or by mail. In case of service by mail, the notice shall be deposited in the United States mail in a sealed envelope with postage prepaid, addressed, as the case may be, to the person in possession of the premises at the address of the premises and/or to the owner as the owner's name and last known address appear on the last equalized assessment roll, and when no address appears, to General Delivery, Town of Hillsborough, California. Any notice given by mail shall be deemed to have been received by the addressee within forty-eight hours after mailing. If notice is given by mail to either the owner or occupant, the city engineer shall, within forty-eight hours after mailing, cause a copy of the notice, printed on a card not less than eight inches by ten inches in size, to be posted in a conspicuous place on the premises.

C. The notice given by the city engineer under paragraph B of this section shall particularly specify what work is required to be done and shall state that if the work is not completed within one hundred fifty days after receipt of the notice, the city engineer shall cause the required work to be performed, in which case the cost and expense thereof will be assessed against the property benefited and become a lien upon the property.

D. If upon the expiration of the one hundred fifty day period, the required work has not been performed, the city engineer shall forthwith cause the work to be done; provided, however, that if the premises are unoccupied and no electric or communications services are being furnished thereto, the city engineer, in lieu of causing the required work to be performed, shall have the authority to order the disconnection and removal of any and all overhead service wires and associated facilities supplying utility service to the property. Upon completion of the work done under this paragraph D, the city engineer shall file a written report with the city council setting forth the fact that the required work has been performed (or that all overhead service wires and associated facilities have been removed) and the cost thereof, together with a legal description of the property against which the 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 the work upon the premises, which time shall be at least ten days after receipt of the engineer's report.

E. When the hearing date has been fixed, the city engineer shall promptly give written notice, in the manner set forth in paragraph B of this section, to the person in possession of the premises and to the property owner of the time and place that the council will consider the city engineer's report and hear protests against the proposed assessment. The notice shall also set forth the amount of the proposed assessment.

F. At the hearing, the city council shall hear and consider the engineer's report and any protests and then shall affirm, modify, or reject the proposed assessment.

G. Any assessment not paid within five days after its confirmation by the city council shall become a lien upon the property against which the assessment is made, and the city engineer shall deliver to the assessor and tax collector a notice of lien on each such property. The assessor and tax collector shall add the amount of the assessment to the next regular bill for taxes levied against the property. The assessment shall be due and payable, and if not paid when due and payable, shall bear interest at the rate of six percent per annum.

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)

The town shall remove at its own expense all town-owned equipment from all poles required to be removed hereunder in ample time to enable the owner or user of the poles to remove them within the time specified in the resolution.

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)

If any act required by this chapter or by a resolution 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 circumstance beyond the control of the actor, then the time for performance of such act shall be extended for a period equivalent to the time of such limitation.

(Ord. 647 § 1, 2003)