Drive to underground utilities ends in one Newport Heights area

The intense debate about whether to place utility lines underground in Newport Heights is over for now in one of the area’s two utility districts.

Petitioners in favor of undergrounding suspended efforts to collect signatures in Assessment District 118 — a swath bounded by 15th Street, Tustin Avenue, Cliff Drive and Old Newport Boulevard — believing that they didn’t have enough support for the project.

Mark Vukojevic, Newport Beach’s deputy public works director, delivered the news to about 50 residents at Wednesday’s Speak Up Newport event in the civic center.

However, Vukojevic noted that the adjacent Assessment District 114, which is bounded by Cliff Drive, Tustin and Irvine avenues, and 15th Street, is still collecting signatures.

“For me, this victory is bittersweet because representatives of the other Newport Heights district, 114, were told their petition process had no end point and could go on indefinitely, despite their having the signatures to block it,” project opponent Portia Weiss wrote in an email blast to neighbors.

City staff said a new petition can be started at any time, prompting Weiss to write, “In the meantime, we seem to be safe for now.”

A group of homeowners hoping to modernize the aging neighborhood sent the city a request earlier this year to establish an assessment district that would pay for placing electric, phone and cable lines out of sight.

City officials estimated that the project would cost $20,000 per house — payable in installments — plus variable costs of between $2,500 and $5,000 to hook up each home’s power lines to Southern California Edison.

Proponents said they believed the improved views, safety benefits and potentially enhanced property values would outweigh the costs.

“We thought it was a no-brainer,” proponent David Ballard has said.

The idea met with significant resistance from neighbors, many of whom balked the price tag, the property valuation estimates and what they felt was a non-transparent process of signature collection.

More than 200 of 300 homeowners signed an online petition to halt signature gathering.

Newport Heights isn’t the only area where undergrounding is being discussed — often hotly — among neighbors.

Portions of the Balboa Peninsula, Balboa Island and Corona del Mar are in various stages of discussion, signature gathering and planning, according to city project maps.

Before the city can form an underground utility assessment district, at least 60% of a neighborhood’s homeowners must sign a form expressing their desire for the project.

If the quota is met, the city would then get an estimate of the project’s cost from the utility companies, which can take more than a year, and then hold a neighborhood election.

If 51% of the homeowners vote in favor, the project is approved and all property owners must pay a portion of the costs.

Certain neighborhoods along the Balboa Peninsula and Little Balboa Island have moved their utilities underground in the past decade.

The work can take several years and can result in cost increases over the original estimates, city staff said.

Ron Moore, a real estate broker who lives on Balboa Island, initially voted in favor of undergrounding in his neighborhood several years ago, but changed his mind when initial per-lot estimates jumped $10,000.

“No one seemed to know what the costs would be,” Moore said. “Nothing provided to the residents convinced them it would not exceed a certain amount and people were hesitant.”