September 2009: Schedule delays. Our latest information is that the presentation planned for September 12th will happen some time in October. Subsequent meeting dates identified below thus also will be rescheduled. As soon as we learn new dates we will post them here.
    Please note that these delays will not shorten the amount of time you have to decide on how you want to vote. The law requires voting to take place 45 days after the ballots with the assessment information are mailed to the homeowners.

August 27, 2009: Aesthetic View Ratings. PBS&J has produced maps for our district that show the preliminary ratings given to each property for the "aesthetic view" component of the benefits assessment. As described in Mr. Aguilar's presentation August 4th, the benefits assessment has two parts: (A) the district-wide benefits of improved reliability, safety, and community appearance; and (B) the view benefit to properties that currently have frontage with overhead wires. Part B assessments are based on the length of frontage from which wires would be removed, weighted for whether those wires are in a direct ocean view (2.0), indirect ocean view (1.5) or non-ocean view (1.0). Most parcels in our district that would have a Part B assessment were rated 1.0, which is color-coded in green on the maps. Properties that do not currently have frontage with overhead wires would not have a Part B assessment, would be assessed only their share of the Part A benefits. This information was mailed to district homeowners on August 27th.

August 13, 2009: Construction Bids. The City has posted bid schedules for the construction work to underground the electric, phone and cable utilities in the North Hills and Sunset districts. We anticipate bids will be in by the second week of September and that we should have pretty solid numbers by mid October.

August 6, 2009: Assessment Allocation Method. On August 4th and 5th Ernesto Aguillar from PBS&J engineering firm presented the methodology used to determine assessments for the lots in the Del Mar North Hills Undergrounding District at the Del Mar annex. Sixty plus members of the district attended the presentations.

Click here for a copy of the allocation formula presentation.

July 28, 2009: Meetings Scheduled.

June 1, 1009: Staking Above-Ground Structures. In a letter announcing the staking to show locations of proposed above-ground structures, the City included the dimensions of proposed boxes ("pedestals") as well as lists of all the proposed locations in both Sunset and North Hills districts.

Click here for a copy of the pedestal locations letter and lists.

April 20, 2009: Decisions made at the City Council Meeting.
      The Del Mar City Council voted unanimously for the North Hills Undergrounding District to proceed with obtaining bids for the project as one district rather than three separate districts. However, the construction will proceed with each Area being considered as a separate stage. This approach will allow one area to be completed while work is progressing in other areas. Construction will start at the north end of the project and proceed to the south end.
     The Council also agreed to erect story poles in June to mark the location and size of the transformers in both the North Hills district and the Sunset district. (The transformer locations for the DMNHUP area are listed below.) The story poles will help the Council and the community to decide whether to include the cost of erecting screening walls for the transformers in the bond.

Click here for a copy of the April 20th Staff Report (pdf).

June 21, 2008: Above-ground structures.
      Three meetings were held at the Del Mar Annex; one for each of the DMNHUP areas. Maricella Leon from SDG&E answered questions and displayed maps showing the lots planned for above ground structures: transformers and fuse boxes. Ernest Aguilar from PBS&J answered general questions about the process. Transformers are 3’x3’x3’; the fuse cabinets are 3.5’ wide 4’ tall and 4’ deep. All transformers and fuse cabinets are in the public right of way.

April 25, 2008: San Diego Gas and Electric's portion of the design is nearing completion. The cable and telephone companies must now complete their designs. We plan to have a meeting of each of the three North Hills district on Saturday, June 21st, 2008. At this meeting, the location of the transformers and other above ground structures will be identified. Representatives of both San Diego Gas and Electric and PBS&J, the City's engineering firm, will be available to answer other questions related to the design. The homeowner costs are scheduled to be available in January of 2009 after the design of the communication companies portion of the project are completed.

September 20, 2007: The Del Mar City Council voted to add 23 properties to Area 2 of the North Hills Underground Project. These properties are located along Van Dyke Avenue, Luneta and Carolina. The property owners presented petitions favoring the project from 20 of the 23 affected property owners. The Council required the group to pay 50% of the up front costs or $5,500. They also indicated that no more properties would be added to the Del Mar North Hills Underground District.

July 1, 2007: PBS&J personnel have begun the assessment process. They are starting the south end of the proposed district and working their way north. These site visits will be made primarily by Ernesto Aguillar and Dean Gipson of PBS&J (see photos below). The visits begin in Area 3, then Area 2 and then Area 1 (south to north) and should be be completed by August 3rd, 2007.

June 6, 2007: PBS&J to visit sites in July.
     Joe Hoefgen is leaving the city to take a job as city manager in Palos Verdes Estates. Ernesto Aguilar of PBS&J engineering firm will be managing the Del Mar Undergrounding Project in Joe's place. At a meeting with the DMNHUP area leaders, Ernesto outlined his plans for the project. PBS&J engineering firm will begin the assessment process this July by visiting the sites in the district.
     You will likely see them walking your neighborhood during July and in some cases they will enter your property to check views, connections and make other observations necessary for determining the amount of each property owner's assessment.

March 19, 2007: The Del Mar City Council approved the formation of an assessment district. The exact boundaries have not been determined but will follow the approximate boundaries in the map presented. Also, it has not been determined whether the district will be treated as one large district or two or three smaller districts. These determinations will depend on such things as whether a larger district will yield economies of scale.

Click here for a copy of the March 19th Staff Report (pdf)

December 15, 2006: Members of the Del Mar North Hills steering committee met and discussed various options for moving forward in light of our recent meeting with Council persons Drucker and Finnel (described below). One of the options discussed was holding a meeting with the people in the middle and south sections to decide what they wanted to do since the north section is the only area that meets the money and petition standard set by the City Council. We wrote to Joe Hoefgen asking if we could assume that the mid and south section would qualify with 17.5 % of the projected costs. The steering committee will be meeting the first part of January to decide how to proceed.

December 4, 2006: Members of the Del Mar North Hills steering committee met with council persons David Drucker and Jerry Finnel, Assistant City Manager Joe Hoefgen and City Manager, Lauraine Brekke-Esparzato to discuss ways of moving the North Hills Undergrounding Project forward.
     Council persons Finnell and Drucker expressed concern about the level of commitment to the project in the mid and southern sections of the area. Their concern is the cost to the city if the project is voted on and defeated. They want to ensure, as much as possible, that the residents do in fact want the poles undergrounded and are willing to pay the assessment and other fees that would be required and thus reduce the risk to the city.
     In light of their concerns, they suggested that the DMNHUP Steering Committee consider two alternatives: (1) dividing the proposed area into three sections and doing just the north section where the support seems to be the strongest, (2) collecting more money and more signatures from the middle and southern sections of the area. They believe either of these alternatives would reduce the risk to the city.
     We will post a map soon indicating the boundaries of the three proposed sections.
     The steering committee will be meeting soon to take their concerns and suggestions under consideration. We will post the meeting date of the steering committee on this web page.

Monday, December 4th at 10:00 a.m. at the city annex the DMNHUP steering committee will meet with the city staff and council persons Jerry Finnell, and Dave Drucker to discuss ways we can move the project forward. Visitors welcome.

Tuesday, November 21st at 8:30 a.m. the Del Mar North Hills Underground Project steering committee will meet on the Shirts' patio, 483 Avenida Primavera. Visitors welcome.

November 13, 2006: The Del Mar City Council heard the steering committee's request to form an assessment district and ruled that we would need to raise an additional $14,000 before they would consider it. The steering committee has been working under the guidelines that says the amount that needs to be raised is $16,000. We raised that amount and gave it to the city along with 190 plus petitions (over 75% per cent of the households in the proposed district), but the council felt it was important to raise another $14,000. This would mean that the proposed North Hills district would pay the same percentage of upfront costs that the Ocean Pines district paid. When the district is formed, all of the upfront money will be repaid to the district and the people in the district who supported the project by making a deposit.

The steering committee has been meeting once a month since February of 2006 to get the project started. Because we were receiving so many requests to be part of the project, we established the following criteria for inclusion:

a. There must be a volunteer willing to do all of the work necessary to see the project through to completion. b. At least 75% of the homeowners in a proposed area must indicate an interest in undergrounding the poles by signing a petition. c. Any addition to existing areas should be a logical extension from an engineering perspective. d. The areas should be contiguous.

Our goal in establishing the criteria was to get a project large enough to obtain the economies of scale but at the same time limit the size to one that we felt we could manage and would have a good chance of being successful. Based on the results so far, it appears all areas will easily meet the 75% criteria.