By Charles Shaw

San Diego’s landmark Mission Hills district might be getting a big-time retro facelift if a new ballot initiative passes.

Over the last four years, the Mission Hills Heritage group has been trying to convince the city to install decorative “period-appropriate, historic-style acorn street lighting” in a special underground utility district that encompasses 778 properties in north Mission Hills.

The proposed lamppost plan is part of a larger “undergrounding” project that began in February, to place new electrical and communications utility lines underground. The undergrounding project will take approximately 30 months to complete, and the new fixtures would be installed four months prior to completion, by the spring of 2011.

Once members of Mission Hills Heritage learned of the city’s plan to install standard “cobra” style light posts, they began pushing for the decorative lighting as a means of increasing property values and beautifying their neighborhood. The city would not pay for the increased cost during a budget crisis because it would be “an unfair use of taxpayer funds,” said Paul Schulman of Mission Hills Heritage. This left it up to the community to raise the additional funds.

According to Schulman, they were presented with “a one-time opportunity” that is closing fast. If the lamppost replacements are not done while the utility undergrounding is taking place simultaneously, the future costs would become prohibitive since the money that the city made available for the replacement lights would no longer be available.

At present, the cost of installing the acorn-style street lights is budgeted at around $882,100. Of that, $450,000 is the city money originally allocated for standard “cobra” style street lamps in the district. The additional cost of the decorative acorn lamps would be another $432,100, which would be paid by 725 of the property owners in the district.

The assessments – $298 per year for each property – will take place over a two-year period (2009 and 2010). After a detailed analysis, the Mission Hills Town Council, which is a cooperative partner in the project, decided to let the city administer the contract, instead of taking it on themselves, to keep the costs as low as possible, according to Schulman.

To go forward with the assessments, the town council now needs to create a maintenance assessment district, which must be approved by the property owners. Ballots were mailed in May to all residents in the proposed district, who were asked to return them within 45 days. The returned ballots will be counted at a July 13 city council meeting. If a majority of those who returned ballots approve, the council will then vote to ratify the maintenance assessment district.

In order to help residents envision their new streetlights, a model antique lamppost and “acorn” light fixture has been temporarily installed next to Espresso Mio, 1920 Fort Stockton Dr. The lamppost also features a hanging planter basket that was provided by the Mission Hills Garden Club, which has offered to place hanging planters on all of the new lampposts if the initiative passes.

No organized opposition to the retro lampposts seems to have emerged. Schulman noted that he had heard that a few posters opposing the model lamppost had been seen. “But I can’t tell you what they said, who put them there, or if they still exist,” he said.

“In the end,” Schulman said, “the cost of $600 for something that will last a lifetime and provide beauty and ambience in the community seems well worth it.”

For more information, go to www.MissionHillsHeritage.org or call (619) 497-1193.

Charles Shaw is a widely published writer and editor whose work appears in Examiner and the Huffington Post. A longtime community activist, he recently moved to San Diego and lives in the Hillcrest area.