A joint effort by Enhance La Jolla and La Jolla Village Merchants Association to beautify and transform utility boxes in the community converting them into wayfinding signage has hit a snag: SDG&E says the method proposed for “wrapping” the boxes is unacceptable.
The collaboration between Enhance La Jolla, La Jolla’s maintenance assessment district, and its business improvement district, La Jolla Village Merchants Association, seeks to cover the surface of utility boxes in the Village with artistic vinyl wraps to provide directional, wayfinding signage in the public right of way.
“LJVMA applied for a grant for wayfinding in La Jolla and received $20,000 for the project from the County of San Diego,” said Ed Witt, Enhance La Jolla chair. “Enhance La Jolla was working on covering utility boxes with scenes of La Jolla. Enhance La Jolla has no funds for their project at this time but would be looking for funding.”
Added Witt: “LJVMA heard of our project and asked if we’d work with them so they could use the monies to cover certain boxes in the Village with wayfinding information. We agreed to work with them. Currently, SDGE has a policy against the use of wraps on their boxes due to wraps being done incorrectly and not properly maintained or taken off when a failure occurs. We’re working with SDGE to resolve this.”
A request for proposals for the work to design and wrap these utility boxes has been released by LJVMA and is available at lajollabythesea.com.
However, SDG&E, which is responsible for the utility boxes and their upkeep, initially balked after learning of the RFP and its conditions.
“It is certainly an innovative approach to functional beautification,” said Morgan Justice Black, SDG&E community relations manager. “Unfortunately, when reading your RFP, we noticed a large inconsistency that may impact your ability to move forward as planned. SDG&E standards do not allow our utility boxes (also known as padmounts or padmounted transformers) to be wrapped. When the wraps were used in the past, they trapped moisture and led to the boxes corroding. So, now we only allow painting.”
Added Justice Black: “We would be happy to work with you to bring your vision to life using our approved painting procedures. You may also want to approach the other utilities (AT&T, Cox, Spectrum) as they may have different requirements for their boxes.”
Jodi Rudick, LJVMA executive director, was perplexed by SDG&E’s reaction to the proposed vinyl wrapping of utility boxes.
“We have been working with a very reputable firm that wrapped boxes all over the Gaslamp,” said Rudick. “There are SDGE boxes that are wrapped all over the County. Perhaps boxes corroded because they were not properly prepped. Our community is extremely excited and interested in doing something positive with the utility boxes. We have secured funding to enhance some of the boxes, but the design needs to include wayfinding or maps, as the County gave us a grant for this purpose.”
