Thumbnail photo: Matthew Paul Argall via Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons license

Del Norte County supervisors gave Crescent City the financial boost it needs to proceed with a project to underground most of the utility lines at its southern gateway.

Four members of the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday authorized the transfer of $2.4 million in Rule20 work credits the county has with Pacific Power to the city before they expire in about six weeks.

“Improvements to the city are improvements to the county,” District 2 Supervisor Valerie Starkey told City Manager Eric Wier, who went before the Board with City Attorney Martha Rice to provide a brief overview of the city’s plans for using those work credits. “We don’t have a current project earmarked for this and so I’m very much for this and hope that you meet the deadline.”

District 3 Supervisor Chris Howard was absent.

The Board of Supervisors’ decision came after the Crescent City Council on Monday approved an ordinance for the second time amending Municipal Code Chapter 12.28, which was adopted in 1970 and establishes underground utility districts.

The update makes the municipal code and the city’s process for undergrounding utilities consistent with current state regulations. It also allows the City Council to require that work credits be used to connect adjacent properties up to 100 feet away to the underground utility lines, according to the city’s staff report.

Previously, the municipal code required property owners to foot the bill for infrastructure upgrades to connect their property to underground utilities, according to the city’s staff report.

The Rule20 work credits come from the California Public Utilities Commission, which established the rule in 1967 in response to local jurisdictions’ concern about overhead utility lines and how they impact the aesthetics of their community.

According to Rice, the first phase of the project would include Front Street from M to K streets and about half a block up K Street. The work credits could also be used for future projects to underground utility lines on K Street to 3rd Street and from 3rd to H streets and from H street back down to Front Street, she said.

Rice also pointed out that the underground utility district is “more like a planning district.” It doesn’t have to go through the approval process with the Local Area Formation Commission that special districts such as the Crescent City Harbor are required to go through, she said.

“We’re just outlining an area where under-grounding will take place,” she said.

The project coincides with the city’s rebuild of Front Street between Play and M streets, a project paid for with $3.3 million in Community Development Block Grant dollars.

Crescent City is also using $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 and a traditional archway over Front Street at K.

On Tuesday, Wier showed an artist’s rendering of the monument signs as well as how they would clash with the power lines if they’re not underground.

“If you look at this section, you’ll see how intrusive the power lines are,” he said. “If you try to put some wayfinding signs in there it’s just going to draw your attention more to those power lines themselves. Same on the further section where we’re looking at this gateway arch. It really is a conflict with those power lines.”

The only power lines the city wouldn’t be able to underground are high voltage transmission lines, Wier said.

Those Rule 20 work credits must be committed to a project by June 8 or they expire, according to Wier.

Property owners within the proposed underground utility district were notified and will have an opportunity to address the City Council on May 5, Rice said. After the public hearing, the City Council will adopt a resolution creating the underground utility district.

It has until the June 8 deadline to enter into an agreement with Pacific Power to perform the actual project to underground the utility lines.

According to Wier, the city has until 2033 to use the work credits.