City Council

12. \nREVISIONS TO UNDERGROUND UTILITY ASSESSMENT DISTRICT\nFORMATION POLICY\nRecommendations:\n(1) Adopt the attached and revised “Underground Utility Assessment District\nFormation Policy” with the following policy changes:\na.\nRemove the requirement of an initial deposit of $500 from each\nproperty owner signing the petition to initiate an assessments\ndistrict.\nb.\nReduce the petition threshold of required signatures and initial\ndeposits from at least 60% of the participating property owners\ndown to at least 50%.\nc.\nEstablish a policy regarding contributions in excess of the required\ngeneral benefit contribution.;\n(2) Acknowledge preliminarily identified potential underground utility\nassessment district boundaries to substantially complete residential\nneighborhoods with remaining overhead utilities;\n(3) Direct staff to coordinate with property owners, and determine if support\nexists to form assessment districts at the preliminarily identified potential\nutility undergrounding boundaries;\n(4) Direct staff to return with a plan to obtain the necessary easements on all\nprivate streets to complete undergrounding citywide;\n(5) Authorize the Ad Hoc Subcommittee for Wildfire Mitigation and Fire\nSafety members (Councilmembers Kempf and Whalen) to meet with staff and\nSCE and SDG&E to expedite the timeline for undergrounding;\n(6) Authorize the City Manager to provide discretionary approval for\napplicants of the City’s Assessment Deferment Program who do not meet the\nage requirements of the program; and\n(7) Direct staff to work with a consultant to develop more accurate project\ncost estimates for preliminarily identified utility undergrounding boundaries