Guide to Utility Undergrounding Funding

It is the City of Hidden Hills’ goal to underground all overhead utility lines in the community. The City has established an undergrounding program and has implemented several funding options to facilitate this. Each of these options requires some level of participation from the City’s property owners and builders.

The following has been developed to provide homeowners and builders the processes, steps, and funding options for different types of undergrounding projects:

Privately Funded Undergrounding (property owner pays for)

Privately funded undergrounding is done when either required by the City (generally for new construction or large additions) to remove overhead wires and poles on private properties, or when a property owner chooses to underground wires and/or poles on their own, either onsite or offsite. Both are done at the property owner’s expense.

Steps:

Property owner contacts SCE to design (SCE may charge a fee).
Following completion of the SCE design the property owner forwards the design to other utilities (Charter and AT&T) who will then prepare their designs (may be a fee).
SCE prepares and obtains easements from all affected property owners and, if necessary, the HHCA.
Upon receipt of final plans from the utilities, the property owner obtains their own quotes and selects a contractor to install infrastructure (trenching, conduits, backfill, paving, junction boxes etc.).
After infrastructure is installed, each utility will then install their respective wiring and electronics and, if possible, remove poles (may be a fee).

City Funded Undergrounding (funded entirely by the City)

City funded utility undergrounding projects can be initiated either by the City or at the request of property owners (following approval by the City). The City accepts applications from property owners for projects that comply with City of Hidden Hills Undergrounding Policy 2024-01 (policy found on the City website hidddenhillscity.org ). In either case, all private wires must have already been removed from the poles proposed for removal, and undergrounded. Easements are normally required to be granted from property owners to the utilities, as determined by the utilities. These projects are prioritized and scheduled by the City based on safety, available funding and cost, and aesthetics.

Assessment Districts (funded and financed by benefitting property owners)

Utility undergrounding assessment districts are funded entirely from benefitting property owners and are usually financed over 20-25 years. The process for an assessment district is generally as follows:

The district is initiated by an one or more interested property owners who act as a liaison between the City, utility companies, and neighbors. The property owners who support undergrounding submit a letter to the City’s expressing their interest in forming an Underground Utility Assessment District.
City collects a deposit from the initiating property owners to cover staff’s preliminary costs.
Maps and cost estimates are then prepared by the City and utility companies, and circulated with a petition to all affected property owners.
If at least 60 percent of the property owners sign the petition and express support, the City Council may direct staff to proceed with the assessment district and prepare an engineer’s report that will include the assessment each property owner in the district would pay (based on the calculated benefit for each property).
Ballots are then sent to property owners within the assessment district, with the engineer’s report. The district passes with a greater than 50% vote (votes are weighted or valued based upon the dollar value of each property owner’s proposed assessment).
If the district passes, all property owners within the district will be responsible for the assessment amounts regardless of a property owner’s personal vote.

Read the detailed Step-by-Step Guide.

Notes:

Undergrounding often requires the replacement of the private electrical panel.
It is recommended that at least one extra conduit (in addition to SCE, Charter/Spectrum, and AT&T) be placed in all trenches for future use.