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control over the project and its design, providing a better ability to coordinate the design <br />and construction efforts. Without subsidizing this effort, each individual property owner <br />would be responsible for the cost of work on their property, obtaining design engineered <br />plans by a licensed electrical engineer, overseeing the construction and permitting <br />related to their property, and coordinating their contractor's construction schedule with <br />PG&E, Comcast and AT&T. The difficulty becomes readily apparent when you increase <br />the coordination efforts from four entities to 30 or 40 by potentially adding each <br />individual property owner and their engineer and contractor. On the First Street Utility <br />District, none of the affected property owners opted to oversee this work and were <br />grateful to have the City oversee the design and construction activities. In addition, <br />having all of the design and construction under one designer and contractor will <br />promote cost efficiencies for the design and construction effort and shorten the project <br />schedule. <br />After presenting the impacts to the residents of including undergrounding of the <br />overhead utilities to the project and the associated impacts to the project schedule and <br />the potential for residents incurring costs beyond the capped amount of $8000 per <br />property owner, the majority of residents in attendance at the public meeting were still in <br />support of undergrounding the overhead utilities. <br />Underground Utility District (UUD) Rule 20A Funds <br />For a number of years the City has had an active utility conversion program to <br />underground overhead utilities on major streets. Moving overhead utility lines <br />underground improves aesthetics, increases property values, provides more reliable <br />utility service and eliminates unsightly tree trimming for overhead wires. <br />For the past 25 years, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has required <br />PG&E and Pacific Bell (AT&T) to set aside an annual conversion allocation, which is <br />apportioned to cities and counties in their service areas based upon the number of <br />electric meters for overhead electrical services within the city's boundary. These funds <br />are commonly referred to as Rule 20A funds. The most recent completed project which <br />utilized Rule 20A funds was for First Street between Neal Street and Stanley Boulevard, <br />and Kottinger Drive between First and Second Streets. The City has expended all of its <br />allocation of Rule 20A funds on the First Street conversion project. It currently receives <br />an annual allocation of approximately $265,000 per year for future projects. It would <br />take approximately 12 years to fund the undergrounding of Stanley Boulevard at its <br />present allocation rate of $265,000 per year. <br />City staff had previously developed a list for future use of Rule 20A funds. The list is <br />composed of projects for which the City has collected partial funding (development <br />fees). <br />1. Division Street -- Del Valle Parkway to Pleasanton Avenue <br />2. Rose Avenue -- Pleasanton Avenue to Fair Street <br />Page 5 of 7 <br />