Information on Undergrounding the Utilities in Manhattan Beach 
Considering buying or selling in Manhattan Beach? Utility wires and poles can have a major impact on values and views and for those areas that might be deciding whether to approve plans to underground, there might be significant costs. The undergrounding push is a resident driven initiative and the city does not advocate for or against undergrounding. Take a look at the Manhattan Beach undergrounding fact booklet for more information.
Some information from the booklet:
How many utility underground districts are there in Manhattan Beach?
As of January 2007, 15 districts have been proposed by residents in Manhattan
Beach. Of these:
Five have been approved by property owners and are in various stages of
construction and residential conversion (Districts 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6).
Five are in the design planning stage and expect to be voted on by homeowners
in the next 1-2 years following completion of the plans needed for open
market bidding (Districts 8, 12, 13, 14 and 15).
Five have been dissolved due to lack of support among affected homeowners
based on the estimated cost of construction (Districts 4, 7, 9, 10, and 11)Utility underground districts are initially proposed by one or more homeowners in
a particular area who favor undergrounding. Simply speaking, it is a homeowner driven process rather than a City-wide directive. For a district to be initiated, a homeowner must follow Steps 1-7 outlined in the City’s packet Steps For Forming A District.
In summary, these steps include:
*Canvassing the neighborhood to gauge support for undergrounding.
*Proposing district boundaries to the City. Ideally, a proposed district should include no more than 300 homes but must be at least one block long (or 600 linear feet). Additionally, the boundaries proposed must be compatible with the utilities’ networks (to be determined when boundaries are proposed).
*Obtaining and submitting petition signatures from at least 60% of homeowners within the defined area. The City will notify all property owners within the proposed boundary that such an effort is underway at the time a petition drive commences.
*Achieving a 60% Survey Validation rate based on the number of surveys returned to the City. Once the district is recognized by the City, design plans will be requested from all participating utilities (Southern California Edison, Verizon and Time Warner). These design plans will become the basis for pricing a project, which in turn allows
homeowners to vote for or against undergrounding knowing the exact cost of undergrounding utilities in the public right-of-way. This cost DOES NOT include the additional private property expenses a homeowner may incur. See “What’s Included in the Cost to Underground Utilities” on page 6 for a full description of
the costs associated with undergrounding.
