CHAPTER 4.
UNDERGROUND UTILITY FACILITIES
Sections:
7-4.02 Hearings: Notices: Determinations
7-4.03 Designation of Underground Utility Districts
7-4.05 Exceptions: Emergencies or Unusual Circumstances
7-4.07 Notices to Property Owners and Utility Companies
7-4.08 Responsibility of Utility Companies
7-4.09 Responsibility of Property Owners
7-4.01 Definitions.
For the purposes of this chapter, unless otherwise apparent from the context, certain words and phrases used in this chapter are defined as follows:
(a) “Commission” shall mean the Public Utilities Commission of the State.
(b) “District” or “Underground Utility District” shall mean that area in the City within which poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures are prohibited as such area is described in a resolution adopted pursuant to the provisions of Section 7-4.03 of this chapter.
(c) “Person” shall mean and include individuals, firms, corporations, and partnerships and their agents and employees.
(d) “Poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures” shall mean poles, towers, supports, wires, conductors, guys, stubs, platforms, crossarms, braces, transformers, insulators, cutouts, switches, communication circuits, appliances, attachments, and appurtenances located aboveground within a District and used or useful in supplying electric, communication, or similar or associated services.
(e) “Utility” shall mean and include all persons or entities supplying electric, communication, or similar or associated services by means of electrical materials or devices.
(Sec. 1, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.02 Hearings: Notices: Determinations.
The Council may from time to time set public hearings to ascertain whether the public necessity, health, safety, or welfare requires the removal of poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures within designated areas of the City and the underground installation of wires and facilities for supplying electric, communication, or similar or associated services. The City Clerk shall notify by mail all affected property owners, as shown on the last equalized assessment roll, and utilities concerned of the time and place of such hearings at least ten (10) days prior to the date thereof. Each such hearing shall be open to the public and may be continued from time to time. At each such hearing all persons interested shall be given an opportunity to be heard. The decision of the Council shall be final and conclusive.
(Sec. 2, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.03 Designation of Underground Utility Districts.
If, after any public hearing provided for in Section 7-4.02 of this chapter, the Council finds that the public necessity, health, safety, or welfare requires such removal and such underground installations within a designated area, the Council, by resolution, shall declare such designated area an Underground Utility District and order such removal and underground installations. Such resolution shall include a description of the area comprising such District and shall fix the time within which such removal and underground installations shall be accomplished and within which affected property owners shall be ready to receive underground services. A reasonable time shall be allowed for such removal and underground installations, having due regard for the availability of the labor, materials, and equipment necessary for such removal and for the installation of such underground facilities as may be occasioned thereby.
(Sec. 3, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.04 Unlawful Acts.
Whenever the Council creates an Underground Utility District and orders the removal of poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures therein, as set forth in Section 7-4.03 of this chapter, it shall be unlawful for any person or utility to erect, construct, place, keep, maintain, continue, employ, or operate poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures in such District after the date such overhead facilities are required by resolution to be removed, except such overhead facilities which may be required to furnish services to an owner or occupant of property prior to the performance by such owner or occupant of the underground work necessary for such owner or occupant to continue to receive utility service, as set forth in Section 7-4.09 of this chapter, and for such reasonable time required to remove such facilities after such work has been performed, and except as otherwise provided in this chapter.
(Sec. 4, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.05 Exceptions: Emergencies or Unusual Circumstances.
Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter, overhead facilities may be installed and maintained for a period not to exceed ten (10) days, without authority of the Council, in order to provide emergency services. The Council may grant special permission, on such terms as the Council may deem appropriate, in cases of unusual circumstances, without discrimination as to any person or utility, to erect, construct, install, maintain, use, or operate poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures.
(Sec. 5, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.06 Other Exceptions.
The provisions of this chapter and any resolution adopted pursuant to the provisions of Section 7-4.03 of this chapter shall not apply to the following types of facilities, unless otherwise provided in such resolution:
(a) Any municipal facility or equipment installed under the supervision and to the satisfaction of the City Engineer;
(b) Poles or electroliers used exclusively for street lighting;
(c) Overhead wires (exclusive of supporting structures) crossing any portion of a District within which overhead wires have been prohibited, or connecting to buildings on the perimeter of a District, where such wires originate in an area from which poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures are not prohibited;
(d) Poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures used for the transmission of electric energy at nominal voltages in excess of thirty-four thousand five hundred (34,500) volts;
(e) Overhead wires attached to the exterior surface of a building by means of a bracket or other fixture and extending from one (1) location on the building to another location on the same building or to an adjacent building without crossing any public street;
(f) Antennas, associated equipment, and supporting structures used by a utility for furnishing communication services;
(g) Equipment appurtenant to underground facilities, such as surface-mounted transformers, pedestal-mounted terminal boxes and meter cabinets, and concealed ducts; and
(h) Temporary poles, overhead wires, and associated overhead structures used or to be used in conjunction with construction projects.
(Sec. 6, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.07 Notices to Property Owners and Utility Companies.
Within ten (10) days after the effective date of a resolution adopted pursuant to the provisions of Section 7-4.03 of this chapter, the City Clerk shall notify all affected utilities and all persons owning real property within the District thereby created of the adoption of such resolution. The City Clerk shall further notify such affected property owners of the necessity that, if they, or any person occupying such property, desire to continue to receive electric, communication, or similar or associated services, they, or such occupant, shall provide all the necessary facility changes on their premises so as to receive such services from the lines of the supplying utilities at a new location, subject to the applicable rules, regulations, and tariffs of the respective utilities on file with the Commission.
Such notification by the City Clerk shall be made by mailing a copy of the resolution adopted pursuant to the provisions of Section 7-4.03 of this chapter, together with a copy of the provisions of this chapter, to the affected property owners, as such are shown on the last equalized assessment roll, and to the affected utilities.
(Sec. 7, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.08 Responsibility of Utility Companies.
If underground construction is necessary to provide utility service within a District created by any resolution adopted pursuant to the provisions of Section 7-4.03 of this chapter, the supplying utility shall furnish that portion of the conduits, conductors, and associated equipment required to be furnished by it under its applicable rules, regulations, and tariffs on file with the Commission.
(Sec. 8, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.09 Responsibility of Property Owners.
(a) Connections Required: Failure to Comply: Notices. Every person owning, operating, leasing, occupying, or renting a building or structure within a District shall construct and provide that portion of the service connection on his property between the facilities referred to in Section 7-4.08 of this chapter and the termination facility on or within such building or structure being served, all in accordance with the applicable rules, regulations, and tariffs of the respective utilities on file with the Commission. If such work is not accomplished by any person within the time provided for in the resolution enacted pursuant to the provisions of Section 7-4.03 of this chapter, the City Engineer shall give a notice in writing to the person in possession of such premises, and a notice in writing to the owner thereof as shown on the last equalized assessment roll, to provide the required underground facilities within ten (10) days after the receipt of such notice.
(b) Connections Required: Failure to Comply: Notices: Service: Posting. The notice provided for in subsection (a) of this section to provide the required underground facilities may be given either by personal service or by mail. In the case of service by mail on either of such persons, the notice shall be deposited in the United States mail in a sealed envelope, with postage prepaid, addressed to the person in possession of such premises at such premises, and the notice shall be addressed to the owner thereof as such owner’s name appears, and shall be addressed to such owner’s last known address as such address appears on the last equalized assessment roll and, when no address appears, to General Delivery, City of Emeryville. If such notice is given by mail, the notice shall be deemed to have been received by the person to whom the notice was sent within forty-eight (48) hours after the mailing thereof. If such notice is given by mail to either the owner or occupant of such premises, the City Engineer, within forty-eight (48) hours after the mailing of such notice, shall cause a copy thereof, printed on a card not less than eight inches (8") by ten inches (10") in size, to be posted in a conspicuous place on such premises.
(c) Connections Required: Failure to Comply: Notices: Form. The notice given by the City Engineer to provide the required underground facilities shall particularly specify what work is required to be done and shall state that if such work is not completed within thirty (30) days after the receipt of such notice, the City Engineer will provide such required underground facilities, in which case the cost and expense thereof will be assessed against the property benefited and become a lien upon such property.
(d) Failure to Do the Work: Performance of Work by City: Costs: Reports. If, upon the expiration of the thirty (30) day period, the required underground facilities have not been provided, the City Engineer shall forthwith proceed to do the work; provided, however, if such premises are unoccupied and no electric or communications services are being furnished thereto, the City Engineer, in lieu of providing the required underground facilities, shall have the authority to order the disconnection and removal of any and all overhead service wires and associated facilities supplying utility service to such property. Upon the completion of the work by the City Engineer, he shall file a written report with the Council setting forth the fact that the required underground facilities have been provided and the cost thereof, together with a legal description of the property against which such cost is to be assessed. The Council shall thereupon fix a time and place for hearing protests against the assessment of the cost of such work upon such premises, which time shall not be less than ten (10) days thereafter.
(e) Failure to Do the Work: Performance of Work by City: Costs: Reports: Hearings: Notices. The City Engineer shall forthwith, upon the time for hearing such protests having been fixed, give notice in writing to the person in possession of such premises and to the owner thereof, in the manner set forth in subsection (b) of this section, of the time and place the Council will pass upon such report and will hear protests against such assessment. Such notice shall also set forth the amount of the proposed assessment.
(f) Failure to Do the Work: Performance of Work by City: Costs: Reports: Hearings. Upon the date and hour set for the hearing of protests, the Council shall hear and consider the report and all protests, if there shall be any, and then proceed to affirm, modify, or reject the assessment.
(g) Failure to Do the Work: Performance of Work by City: Costs: Assessments: Liens. If any assessment is not paid within five (5) days after its confirmation by the Council, the amount of the assessment shall become a lien upon the property against which the assessment is made by the City Engineer, and he is hereby directed to turn over to the Assessor and Tax
Collector a notice of lien on each of such properties on which the assessment has not been paid, and the Assessor and Tax Collector shall add the amount of such assessment to the next regular bill for taxes levied against the premises upon which such assessment was not paid. Such assessment shall be due and payable at the same time property taxes are due and payable and, if not paid when due and payable, shall bear interest at the rate of six percent (6%) per year.
(Sec. 9, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.10 Responsibility of City.
The City shall remove, at its own expense, all City-owned equipment from all poles required by the provisions of this chapter to be removed in ample time to enable the owner or user of such poles to remove the poles within the time specified in the resolution enacted pursuant to the provisions of Section 7-4.03 of this chapter.
(Sec. 10, Ord. 68-05)
7-4.11 Extensions of Time.
In the event any act required by this chapter or by the resolution adopted pursuant to the provisions of Section 7-4.03 of this chapter cannot be performed within the time provided on account of shortages of materials, war, restraint by public authorities, strikes, labor disturbances, civil disobedience, or any other circumstances beyond the control of the actor, the time within which such act will be accomplished shall be extended for a period equivalent to the time of such limitation.
(Sec. 11, Ord. 68-05)