{"id":245428,"date":"2012-09-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/community-vocalizes-concerns-at-undergrounding-workshop\/"},"modified":"2012-09-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T07:00:00","slug":"community-vocalizes-concerns-at-undergrounding-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/community-vocalizes-concerns-at-undergrounding-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Community vocalizes concerns at undergrounding workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018No boxes for any reason,\u2019 community says; earlier partnership is needed<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Antonio Rey | Editor SDUN<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Community
Todd Gloria at the Undergrounding Workshop (Photo by SDUN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Community members from several San Diego neighborhoods met Monday, Sept. 24 to express mounting concerns over the city\u2019s Utilities Undergrounding Program. Organized in part by District Three Councilmember Todd Gloria, the Community Utility Box Workshop was to provide a forum for public comment and question.<\/p>\n

As part of the Undergrounding Program, the city is moving 20 \u2013 25 miles of overhead utility lines underground each year. Not every aspect of the utility lines are placed underground, resulting in transformer boxes in various locations throughout the neighborhoods, including along public right of way, on private homeowner property and in front of businesses.<\/p>\n

Of the approximately 70 people in attendance, most voiced their desire for getting the green transformer boxes completely out of sight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy main interest tonight is to work toward getting the boxes underground,\u201d the first community member said once the floor was open to public comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe process needs to stop. No more above ground; that\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d another said later in the meeting, which lasted over two hours. \u201cMost people would rather have it done right, or not at all. We cannot have boxes for any reasons,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

There were representatives from most Uptown neighborhoods, including Kensington, Talmadge, Normal Heights, North Park, Bankers Hill and Mission Hills. As the undergrounding process is city wide, community members from Mission Valley, Mission Bay, La Jolla and Del Cero were also in attendance.<\/p>\n

\u201cA concern that I\u2019ve had is that we\u2019re spending literally millions of dollars to underground utilities, and some neighborhoods are starting to tell me that they would rather keep the [above ground] utilities than move to the boxes. That\u2019s why we\u2019re here tonight,\u201d Gloria said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a plan that we\u2019re following, but I think as we\u2019ve unveiled that plan, lessons have been learned, some mistakes may have been made and there\u2019s some desire to make sure there\u2019s some continuous improvement,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In addition to box placement \u2013 including cost, easement questions and graffiti, as well as fall hazards from the transformer pads \u2013 inadequate public input in the planning process and maintenance of existing boxes was addressed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese issues stem from a lack of oversight or lack of standards,\u201d Cheryl Dye said at the meeting. Dye was speaking as a representative of the North Park Planning Committee, as well as the Community Planners Committee (CPC) utility box sub-committee.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know we all have to work together to figure out the best solutions, but fundamentally we feel there\u2019s inadequate city oversight,\u201d Dye said, acknowledging that it was not common practice to place the transformers underground. \u201cWe don\u2019t expect that,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Community
Residents say transformers on pads like these are visual and safety hazards. (Photo by SDUN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Attendees continued to return to the topic of placing the boxes underground, however, and asked representatives from San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) to provide proof to the claims undergrounding the transformers increased interrupted service and posed a safety hazard to their employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore we abandon the idea of undergrounding all together, I think SDG&E should provide some verifiable evidence that indeed there is going to be a problem with employee safety,\u201d one community member said.<\/p>\n

Representatives from SDG&E were in attendance to address some of the community\u2019s concerns, including Frank Urtasun, SDG&E Regional Vice President of External Affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur position has not changed on that,\u201d Urtasun said. \u201cThe reason we don\u2019t put those transformers underground [is] for safety and reliability purposes. I heard what you said tonight, and we will take note and go back and see what we can provide to you to substantiate that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to SDG&E, representatives from Cox Cable, Time Warner Cable and AT&T were also in attendance, however the majority of concerns were addressed to SDG&E.<\/p>\n

The Sept. 24 workshop was one in a series addressing the entire issue of undergrounding. The first was held by the CPC on July 24, resulting in changes to the timeline for the Undergrounding Program.<\/p>\n

City representative Deborah Van Wanseele presented the new timeline, in order to address concerns surrounding lack of community input. She said the additional input added two to three months to the process, however community members were concerned about joining the discussion too late to affect change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bottom line here is we can talk about where these things go until we\u2019re blue in the face, but we\u2019ve got to get a dialog going by the second or third month,\u201d Normal Heights resident Mark Rowland said.<\/p>\n

Van Wanseele\u2019s timeline seeks input from residents after 18 months of design by SDG&E, allowing for property-owner feedback in the 19th month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only way this is going to work is if we\u2019re partners. By the time you\u2019ve drawn details, it\u2019s too late,\u201d Rowland said. \u201cIf you work with the community groups from day one \u2026 we\u2019re going to be your best allies.\u201d<\/p>\n

For additional information on the Undergrounding Program, including history, project schedule and contact information, visit sandiego.gov\/undergrounding\/. Additionally, Gloria encouraged the community to email him at toddgloria@sandiego.gov to be placed on a mailing list for updates.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018No boxes for any reason,\u2019 community says; earlier partnership is needed By Anthony King | SDUN Editor Community members from several San Diego neighborhoods met Monday, Sept. 24 to express mounting concerns over the city\u2019s Utilities Undergrounding Program. Organized in part by District Three Councilmember Todd Gloria, the Community Utility Box Workshop was to provide […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":245429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Community vocalizes concerns at undergrounding workshop","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11550,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-245428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-top-stories","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}