Crescent City hopes to use the last leg of Front Street’s reconstruction along with a gateway project as an opportunity to underground electrical distribution lines between K and M streets, but it’s under a tight deadline.
Councilors have until June 8 to update the municipal code chapter governing the creation of underground utility districts. They must hear from the public, adopt a resolution creating the underground utility district, coordinate with Del Norte County on the transfer of work credits Pacific Power can use to underground the existing power lines and negotiate an agreement with Pacific Power.
“It’s that last action which commits the funds,” City Attorney Martha Rice told councilors on Monday.
Those work credits come from the California Public Utilities Commission, which established Rule 20 in 1967 in response to local jurisdictions’ concerns about overhead utility lines and how they impact the aesthetics of their communities.
Electricity providers use those work credits to underground existing overhead power lines along with phone, internet and cable TV lines, Rice said. But the CPUC stopped accumulating those work credits in 2023 and they’re set to expire on June 8, 2025, she said.
Crescent City has $393,942 in unspent work credits and Del Norte County has about $2.4 million’s worth, Rice said. Once the city enters into an agreement with both the county and Pacific Power to use those work credits, its utility project would be active before the credits expire, the city attorney said.
“Our thought is if the county doesn’t have a plan to use their [work credits] then perhaps we could ask them to transfer some of their credits to assist with covering the total cost of our project that we’re considering,” she said.
Councilors took the first step, unanimously approving updating Municipal Code Ch. 12.28, which was first established in 1970. The update will make the city’s guidelines consistent with the state’s current regulations, according to Rice’s staff report.
“The updates will also require the city manager to submit a report to the Council before the public hearing that outlines project area as well as the estimate of cost,” she said. “[The ordinance] authorizes the City Council to require the work credits be used to also underground service laterals up to the [electric meter] and up to a maximum of 100 feet. If we didn’t have that option, that responsibility and cost would fall on the property owners themselves.”
This endeavor comes as Crescent City is spending $3.3 million in Community Development Block Grant dollars on the final rebuild of Front Street, including sidewalks, from Play to M streets.
Crescent City is also using nearly $3 million in Clean California grant dollars to install monument signs at Front Street and U.S. 101. These signs would include a double wave with dolphins as the first gateway into the community, a single dolphin design with a wave posted at the intersection along with a traditional archway over K Street.
“Underground utilities have been a need in this community for some time, and having the right project, and the right projects, has always been an important part of that,” City Manager Eric Wier told councilors. “Trying to take advantage of when things are under construction is an important piece.”
According to Wier, while the city can’t underground the main transmission lines — the taller poles towering over the others on Front Street near M Street — it can address the smaller distribution lines snaking their way down Front Street to K Street.
Efforts to remove those smaller lines can stretch for several blocks, but it’ll be “a lot better,” Wier said. He used the last local distribution pole at Front and K streets as an example.
“You also have to chase it down K Street at least half a block or a block would be the best, which we’re reconstructing anyways,” he said. “Now is the most cost-effective time to do something like this.”
According to Rice, the Rule 20 work orders have to be committed to the project by June 8 in order for the city to use them.
Councilwoman Candace Tinkler also asked for confirmation that property owners will not incur expenses as a result of the city’s utility project.
Rice said that the work orders would cover undergrounding service laterals that are within 100 feet of the distribution lines.
“Before creating the district, we will have a district map that will have the boundaries and we will have an estimate of the cost as well as the measurements for the service laterals and what that distance is,” she said.
To keep to the June 8 deadline, the City Council must adopt the update to the Municipal Code by April 7. It would need to notify property owners of the project and set a public hearing by April 21. The City Council would need to hold the public hearing before adopting a resolution creating the underground utility district by May 5 and reach an agreement with Pacific Power by May 19.
The Del Norte County Board of Supervisors must also agree to transfer the county’s unused work credits to the city either on April 8 or April 22, according to Rice’s staff report.
