Los Angeles County Municipal Code § 325.1 Electrical transmission lines

Any person owning, controlling, operating, or maintaining any electrical transmission or distribution line upon any mountainous, forest-, or brush-covered lands, or land covered with flammable growth shall, at all times, maintain around and adjacent to any pole supporting a switch, fuse, transformer, lightning arrester, or line junction, or dead end, or corner poles, or towers, or other poles or towers at which power company employees are likely to work most frequently, an effective firebreak, consisting of a clearing of not less than 10 feet (3.05 m) in each direction from the outer circumference of such pole or tower provided, however, that this provision shall not be deemed to apply to lines used exclusively as telephone, telegraph, or telegraph messenger call, fire or alarm lines, or other lines classed as communication (Class C) circuits by the Public Utilities Commission of the State of California. Nor shall this provision apply to clearance around poles supporting only secondary electrical distribution lines of 750 volts or less.

Any person owning, controlling, operating, or maintaining any electrical transmission or distribution line upon any mountainous, or forest-, or brush-covered lands, or lands covered with flammable growth shall maintain a clearance of the respective distances hereinafter in this section specified in all directions between all vegetation and all conductors carrying electrical current.

For lines operating at 2,400 volts or more, but less than 72,000 volts, 4 feet (1.22 m);

For lines operating at 72,000 volts or more, but less than 110,000 volts, 6 feet (1.83 m); and

For lines operating at 110,000 volts or more, 10 feet (3.05 m).

TABLE 325.1

In any case, such distance shall be sufficiently great to furnish the required clearance from the particular wire or conductor at any position, of such wire or conductor at any temperature of 120 degrees Fahrenheit or less. Dead trees; old, decadent, or rotten trees; those weakened by decay or disease; and trees leaning toward the line, which may contact the line from the side or may fall on the line, shall be felled, cut or trimmed so as to remove the hazard.

No clearing to obtain line clearance is required when self-supporting aerial cable is used except that forked trees, leaning trees, and other growth which may fall across the cable and break it shall be removed.

Exception: Nothing contained in this section shall be construed to require any person to maintain any clearing on land where such person does not have the legal right to maintain such clearing, nor shall any provision of this ordinance be construed to require any person to enter upon or to damage property of another without the consent of the owner thereof. For further exceptions, see California Code of Regulations, Title 14, Division 1.5, Chapter 7, Article 4.