Not
one residential street in the Pico Neighborhood made it
into the undergrounding plan for electric wires.
by Jim Ries
Did
you know that there are over 5,600 power poles in the
City of Santa Monica and that the City Council has a
plan to underground each of them? Luckily for the cash
strapped City of Santa Monica, Southern California Edison
is required to provide funding for this public benefit
project in its operating agreement with the California
Public Utilities Commission. These poles fall into two
categories; transmission and distribution poles. Transmission
poles are the larger poles transmitting power throughout
the City, while distribution poles are smaller and provide
service to individual properties.
Due
to their smaller number, “greater threat to a
person’s health and welfare” and larger
aesthetic impact on the City, the Council is focusing
on undergrounding the 193 transmission poles in Santa
Monica. Based on the “Above Ground Transmission
Lines” graphic found in the February 8, 2000 Staff
Report on this issue, over 50% of these poles are located
within the boundaries of the Pico Neighborhood.
All
of this is good news, but the story goes down hill from
here for Pico Neighborhood residents. City Staff estimates
that based on the current funding levels it will take
36 years to underground all 193 transmission poles.
The Staff Report is silent on how many years it will
take to underground the remaining approximately 5,400
distribution poles.
In
2000, the City Council instructed the Public Works Staff
to break the poles down into street segments and prioritize
which segments are to come down first. Included in this
request was the creation of a Top 5-priority list for
the next 10 years. City Staff’s created a priority
list based on a point system that included the following
categories;
•
Heavy Concentration of overhead lines,
• Heavy pedestrian and/or auto traffic,
• Proximity to schools, community centers &
playgrounds and
• Difficulty to maintain.
Many
of categories are broken down into subcategories that
are outlined in the Staff Report, which can be found
at http://pen.ci.santa-monica.ca.us/cityclerk/council/agendas/2000/.
The following street segments were recommended by Staff
and approved by the Council to be included in the 10
year undergrounding schedule:
•
18th Court from Pico Boulevard to Pearl Street
• Olympic Boulevard from Stewart Street to 22nd
Street
• Marine Street from Frederick Street to Lincoln
Blvd.
• 20th Street from Pearl Street to Ocean Park
Boulevard
• 18th Street from Ocean Park Boulevard to Ashland
Place North and to 16th Street
It seems hard to believe, but not one residential street
segment in the Pico Neighborhood made it into the 10
year undergrounding plan. Just to be fair, Staff’s
recommendation did include one industrial/commercial
street segment in our community on Olympic Boulevard
from Stewart Street to 22nd Street. While it is true
some thing is better than nothing is, I would assume
that most residents would rather see a residential street
in the heart of our neighborhood cleaned up before this
portion of Olympic Boulevard.
How
can our residential streets not merit inclusion in the
top five? Not only do we have over 50% of the City’s
transmission lines, our streets are heavily used as
evidenced by the many peak hour turn restrictions, we
have schools, community centers and daycare facilities
and as much, if not more, density than any other street
segment analyzed. Once again it appears that the Pico
Neighborhood receives fewer resources than other parts
of the City.
There
is no evidence from the Public Hearing record that any
Council members were protecting our interests and it
appears that Staff missed some obvious variables, permitted
in their priority system, that would have moved our
street segments up the priority list. If either group
had a better understanding of the Pico neighborhood
they would have realized that there is both a Head Start
program and a church at Delaware Avenue’s intersection
with 20th Street. Or that the 19th Court is adjacent
to the New Path Montessori School, the poles are visible
from the much-traveled 20th Street and that north of
Delaware those poles obstruct the northeastern views
of residents living on the east side of 19th Street.
Or that the poles on Michigan Avenue are next to the
First A.M.E Church, including its Head Start School,
and also obstruct the northern views of residents to
its south. Evidently, Memorial Parks adjacency to the
power poles on 14th was also overlooked. Any one of
these issues would have increase the numeric total of
these street segments pushing them into the top 5. I
am sure that a more detailed review of the categories
by other community members would locate additional points.
While it is true that this has been approved and that
work has already commenced on the Marine Street segment,
there is still something we can do to move our segments
up the list. This is a subjective priority list that
can be reviewed by the Council if there is a valid reason,
but it won’t be reviewed unless they are pressured
to review it. The Council needs to hear that this is
an important issue to our Community and that based on
their priority system we deserve to at least crack the
top five list of projects. Let them know that these
lines impact our views or that there is a school, church
or community serving use located on a particular street
that was omitted from the report. There are no guarantees,
but without trying we will never have a chance.
I
urge you to reach out to the Council and the City Staff
and correct their notion that we do not care if our
poles are undergrounded and that based on their priority
point system we are entitled to be included in the 10-year
plan. The easiest way to contact them is by email. They
can be reached at the following email addresses: The
Council at council@santa-monica.org and the City Engineer
Anthony Antich at tony-antich@santa-monica.org. Or the
Council can be reached by phone at (310) 458-8201, while
Mr. Antich can be reached at (310) 458-8721
