I am a resident in the neighborhood of Driftwood Drive, Marilyn Drive, Ocean Vista Drive and Wesley Drive. Our utilities were undergrounded 20 years ago. Views were the driving force in assessing ourselves thousands of dollars each and knowing that we were investing to improve our property values. I had a pole in my front yard and three wires that draped across my view of the horizon and Catalina Island. The assessments were divided into three tiers: $6,000, $8,000 and $10,000. We were given the choice to pay it off in whole or apply the assessment to our property tax bill for the next 20 years, which would double the cost over that time period.
This was a significant investment 20 years ago and still is today. And I will add that our assessment was at the lower end compared to other neighborhoods that passed undergrounding assessments before us and since. The process to underground our utilities started in 1994, one year after the Laguna Beach fire. Ironically, fire prevention was only a supplemental and very distant tertiary reason to underground. I would add that our assessment would never have passed on the sole argument for fire prevention. And I predict that Measure P will not either.
Measure P is an incoherent, hodgepodge plan with what objective? Will it prevent fires? No. Will it prevent evacuation/access routes from being blocked? No. So, how much return are we receiving for this huge expenditure? I would say not much. Measure P pays to underground utilities for a few lucky property owners. The city has historically refused to underground neighborhoods because of cost. That is why neighborhoods have self-assessed to underground. I and many other residents have paid a great deal to improve our properties, and I will not pay for the property improvement of other owners. I will vote “No” on P.
For aspiring city council candidates, a winning strategy would be to run on the issue of trees. Trim the trees for views, and at the same time the fuel is reduced for fires. This would be strategically more successful than Measure P. And you can pay for this out of general funds.
Ronald Wisecup, Laguna Beach
