PURPOSE

Staff recommends that the City Council order the Public Works Director to prepare a map or plat and a report for Olive Avenue Underground Utility District No.1, which encompasses Olive Avenue from the I-5 Bridge to Victory Boulevard, and Lake Street from Olive Avenue to Magnolia Boulevard. A map showing the general location is attached.

BACKGROUND

Staff�s focus is on undergrounding overhead lines along view corridors. Within Burbank, 12,000 power poles support 275 circuit miles of Burbank Water and Power�s (BWP�s) overhead power lines, excluding service drops and related low-voltage lines. Out of the 275 circuit miles, 173 run along residential rear property lines or along alleyways. The remaining 102 circuit miles of overhead lines run down roadways, of which 29 circuit miles run along 12 street miles of major view corridors like Olive Avenue. (More than one overhead circuit can attach to a pole; therefore, several circuit miles can run along one street mile).

At the Council Study Session on June 15, 2004, staff presented policy issues and discussed initial implementation steps for undergrounding overhead lines along major view corridors. Although Council chose not to increase funding levels for aesthetically-driven undergrounding, they continue to support the existing level of funding, $360,000 per year.

It costs at least $3.6 million per street mile to underground BWP�s power lines along major view corridors; the existing level of funding therefore allows about one-tenth of a street mile per year to benefit from undergrounding. On occasion, new developments and electric system upgrades allow aid-in-construction fees and capital improvement funding to supplement this amount, but the overall pace of undergrounding is still quite modest. Therefore, staff has focused on short view corridor segments for which undergrounding would have considerable visual impact.

With the support of the Community Development Department (CDD) and in coordination with the Magnolia Power Project, BWP undergrounded its power lines along its Flood Control Channel perimeter during FY2004-05. A year earlier, BWP had undergrounded the City�s street lighting conductors along its Magnolia perimeter. These recent undergrounding efforts have enabled these two perimeters to be completely free of overhead lines.

Staff proposes to underground along the Olive Avenue view corridor west of the I-5 Bridge. BWP next intends to underground its overhead lines along Olive Avenue from the I-5 Bridge to Victory Boulevard, in a manner which will also eliminate overhead crossings at the Lake Street and Victory Boulevard intersections. BWP also intends to install underground lines along Lake Street as part of its effort to build a new Burbank Station in the corner of the BWP Yard near Lake Street and Olive Avenue (When BWP builds a new station, the lines leaving that station are underground for several hundred feet or more). The capital improvement funding for the Lake Street effort would supplement the $360,000 for aesthetic undergrounding.

After three years or so of effort, the Olive Avenue view corridor would be free of BWP lines, and BWP�s entire perimeter would be free of BWP lines. But to achieve a complete elimination of overhead lines, the phone company and other communication utilities would have underground their lines as well. Forming an Underground Utility District would require all these utilities to underground their lines at their own cost as well as to share in the restoration of street surfaces.

The resolution before the Council represents one of the first steps in forming an Underground Utility District, that of directing staff to define the district and associated costs and impacts to the public.

ANALYSIS

Undergrounding for aesthetics involves more than the construction activity itself. Constructing underground ducts along a street and installing underground cable are straightforward activities. Done properly and in coordination with other City departments, streets are opened only once and inconvenience to traffic and businesses is modest. When undergrounding for aesthetics, there are two key factors:

• Getting other utilities to underground their lines, which involves forming an Underground Utility District

• Converting the customer�s service from overhead to underground, which involves leaving a street or other public right-of-way and entering the customer�s property

In the case of the Olive Avenue and Lake Street segments under consideration, there are no �foreign� electric lines (such as from Edison or Los Angeles), only foreign low-voltage communication lines from Pacific Bell and other communication companies. Also, only a few customers would need their service converted from overhead to underground.

Getting other utilities to underground their lines. A telecommunication company (phone, cable TV, other telecommunication providers) is not automatically obligated to underground its lines when a municipal utility undergrounds theirs. Absent an Underground Utility District, the City would have to bear the expense of undergrounding the communication lines and may have to accept the telecommunication company�s timing. If they are not undergrounded, the communications lines remain above ground on shortened poles. (Stubby poles mar the view along Olive Avenue west of Buena Vista Street and along San Fernando Road north of Burbank Boulevard.)

With an Underground Utility District, the telecommunication company can recover the cost of undergrounding from its own rate base, provided certain conditions are met. These conditions favor undergrounding busy commercial thoroughfares like Olive Avenue and Lake Street. Once the City establishes such an Underground Utility District, the City must be prepared to underground its own lines within a reasonable period of time (usually several years), making the issue of coordination especially important.

Converting the customer�s service connection from overhead to underground. Converting a customer to underground service involves a new path to the existing overhead service panel, or replacing the panel altogether with an underground service panel. Either way, there will be a measure of customer disruption.  There may even be a need to find space for a pad mounted transformer. The expense can run into several thousand dollars or more per customer.

Most communities that underground for aesthetics will reimburse the customer up to some limit. Communities that attempt to have the customer bear most of the conversion costs run into strong opposition. Unless otherwise directed, BWP�s would pay for the customer�s transformer station and up to 100 feet of line extension of underground conversion.

The Council has the authority to form Underground Utility Districts. Burbank Municipal Code section 7-1002 provides that whenever the public necessity, health, safety, or welfare requires the removal of poles, over�head wires and associated overhead structures within any area of the City and their placement underground, the Council may order the creation and formation of an Underground Utility District consisting of a defined and designated area of the City.

This Resolution enables the City Council to initiate proceedings to form an Underground Utility District. Burbank Municipal Code section 7-1004 provides that the City Council may initiate proceedings to form an Underground Utility District by ordering the Public Works Director to prepare and submit a map or plat of the proposed district and a report containing a statement of the public ways or portions thereof to be included in the district;  a general description of the utilities which will be affected; and a statement of the estimated cost connected with placing the overhead utilities underground, including, but not limited to, the associated costs for removal of poles and the opening and closing of the public ways.

FISCAL IMPACT

The fiscal impact is within current budget and future capital plans for the Electric Fund and neutral for the General Fund. Forming an Underground Utility District enables the City to underground all overhead lines without having to pay for undergrounding the lines of other communication utilities.

RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends that the City Council order the Public Works Director to prepare a map or plat and a report for Olive Avenue Underground Utility District No.1.

If the Council concurs, the appropriate action would be a motion to adopt the resolution entitled �A RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BURBANK ORDERING PREPARATION OF A MAP OR PLAT AND A REPORT BY THE PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR    PURSUANT TO BURBANK MUNICIPAL CODE SECTION 7-1004 FOR OLIVE AVENUE UNDERGROUND UTILITY DISTRICT NO. 1.�

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L:\City Council\Staff Reports\2005\Olive Ave. Underground Utility District No. 1.doc

Attachment      

c:          Rick Morillo

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