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Brookline Underground Wires Committee |
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Committee
Members
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Mission
Statement
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Contacts
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FAQ
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Burying Utility Wires in Brookline |
Overview
The Brookline Underground Wires Committee is proposing a bylaw to place all utility wires along streets in Brookline underground. The program will be carried out through a series of projects out over a long period of time.
Background
Utility poles and the wires that deliver telephone and electrical service have been a part of the Brookline streetscape for over 100 years. The poles and wires were introduced as a rapid and inexpensive way of introducing telephone and electrical service. In recent years, with the expansion of services offered through cable television companies, the density of wires and related equipment has increased substantially. Approximately 76 miles of Brookline’s 100 miles of streets have overhead wires. Major streets such as Beacon and Harvard, most commercial areas, and a few neighborhoods already are free of overhead wires. Burying of utility wires is part of Brookline’s draft comprehensive plan. The Underground Wires Committee was established by Town Meeting in November 2002 to explore the feasibility of burying the wires.
Reasons for placing wires underground
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Safety: Downed electrical wires pose serious public safety problems; underground wires very rarely present safety issues.
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Reliability: Overhead wires are subject to damage from storms and large trucks; underground wires in conduits are less subject to damage. Placement of wires underground can lead to more reliable electrical, telephone, and cable services.
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Aesthetics: Wires and the equipment on poles are unsightly.
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Property values: On streets with a heavy burden of overhead wires, the placement of wires underground can be expected to increase residential property values.
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Street trees: Overhead wires often compete with street trees. Trees can be adversely affected when pruned to accommodate wires. Placement of wires underground eliminates competition between wires and tree limbs.
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Property tax revenues: Owners of underground conduits and wires are subject to personal property taxes; as the wires are buried, more personal property tax revenue will come to the Town from utility companies.
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The cost of placing wires underground
- Placement of utility wires underground is costly --- half a million to two million dollars per mile.
Precedent for placing wires underground
In some countries in Western Europe, nearly all utility wires are underground. In the United States, interest in burying utility wires is widespread. Many years ago Brookline placed many of its wires in commercial areas and major streets underground. Similarly Boston has already placed many of its wires underground downtown and near downtown. San Antonio and Colorado Springs are in the midst of projects to bury all of their wires. Other towns in Massachusetts such as Concord, Wellesley, Bedford, Duxbury, Nantucket, Holden and Needham have completed limited projects to bury wires. Other towns that currently have projects underway include Chelmsford, North Andover, and Westwood. Particularly helpful for Brookline is the bylaw that provides the basis for North Andover’s program.
Legal structure
Massachusetts’s law (Chapter 166, Section 22) provides a mechanism through which cities and towns may require electrical and telephone utilities to place wires underground. The law also provides a mechanism to pay for the burying of wires through a town-wide, two percent surcharge on electrical, telephone bills and other utility bills. In towns such as Brookline that are served by NStar, the surcharge is applied only to the distribution portion of electrical bills.
Proposed bylaw
The proposed bylaw prohibits new utility poles and wires and establishes a procedure for requiring that utility wires be placed underground. The bylaw calls for the utility companies to work together in planning and implementing undergrounding projects, provides the town with a means of monitoring and coordinating the work, and provides the Town with a means of accounting for use of the funds. The program will include the costs of connecting underground wires to existing buildings. Exempted from surcharges on their electrical bills will be households that qualify for reduced electricity rates on the basis of a program established by the Massachusetts Legislature. The Board of Selectmen will appoint a committee that will oversee the program.
Proposed Undergrounding Priorities
The sequence of projects will be determined by the Board of Selectmen acting upon recommendations from the oversight committee and the Department of Public Works. The Committee has recommended that the following criteria be used in selecting projects:
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Safety: Preference will be given to projects that are of greater importance in enhancing public safety.
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Density: Priority will be given to streets with higher density residential use.
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Public use. Priority will be given to streets and portions of streets with “community” rather than “private” land use.
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Efficiency. Priority will be given to projects that offer particularly great benefit in relationship to cost. The coupling of road resurfacing with burying of wires, for example, will be encouraged to maximize efficiency in spending.
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Time Frame for the program
Burying of wires will take many years because the work will be done on a pay-as-you-go basis. Surcharges on utility bills will yield annual revenues of about $750,000 per year. The work will be done through a series of projects that will be undertaken as funds become available. If a bylaw is passed in 2004,
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An oversight committee will be appointed in 2005. |
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The first project will be selected in 2005 or 2006. |
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Collection of utility bill surcharges will begin in 2007. |
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Design work for the first project will be initiated in 2007. |
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The first project will break ground in 2009. |
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The first project will be completed in 2010 or 2011. |
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The second project will be selected in 2007 and completed in
2012 or 2013. |
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Subsequent projects will be launched every year or two depending on their scope and the funds that are available. |
Contact committee members
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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q. Why did the Board of Selectmen appoint a committee to investigate the subject of burying overhead wires?
A. The Fall 2002 Town Meeting passed an Article directing the Board of Selectmen to appoint a seven person Selectmen Committee to investigate and report on the proliferation of above ground utility poles and wires. Utility poles supporting a network of wires that deliver telephone and electrical service are a familiar part of the Brookline streetscape. In recent years, with the advent of cable television and, more recently, the introduction of fax, e-mail, and Internet services, this network has become denser and more intricate within the Town. It is also certain that this trend will continue, as the web becomes a standard means for doing commercial and household business.
The subject had not been studied for many years.
Q. What was the mandate given to the Committee by the Board of Selectmen?
A. “NOW, THEREFORE, this Town Meeting requests that the Board of Selectmen appoint a seven person committee to investigate and report to the spring 2003 town meeting the town’s options with regard to undergrounding all wired utilities, together with its recommendations concerning the adoption of a By-Law that requires all public utility companies within the community to underground their distribution systems within the town.”
Q. What is the scope of the projects resulting from passage of this Bylaw?
A. The scope of the program is large since the proposal calls for removing overhead wires from all of Brookline’s streets. Three quarters of Brookline’s 100 miles of streets currently have overhead wires. Because the burying of wires is expensive, the program will be able to bury only a small portion of the existing wires each year. The proposed program will be carried out through a series of projects that will be financed on a pay-as-you-go basis. More than 50 years may be required to complete the program.
Q. What authority does the Town of Brookline have to pass a bylaw regarding burying of wires?
A. Massachusetts General Laws (Chapter 166, Section 22) provides a framework for towns to require that utilities bury their networks.
MGL 166-22 requires utilities to get Selectmen’s approval for the installation of new poles & wires within the municipality.
MGL 166-22 permits a Town to adopt a bylaw requiring all utilities to convert all overhead wires, poles and equipment to underground.
MGL 166-22 permits the utilities to collect a surcharge of 2% of the monthly utility bills to finance projects to bury wires.
Q. If the Bylaw were passed, when would the collection of the 2% surcharge begin to be levied?
A. If the Bylaw is passed by Brookline Town Meeting in November 2004, collection of the 2 % surcharge will begin in January 2007.
Q. What utility bills will the 2 % surcharge be collected on? What entities are classified as utilities for this definition?
A. The 2 % surcharge would be collected on all the wired utility bills of all Brookline customers. This would include electricity, telephone, and all types of cable services. In the case of electrical utility charges, the surcharge would actually be charged only to the distribution portion of bills. Since the distribution cost represents approximately 60% of typical monthly charges, the effective surcharge would only be 1.2%.
Q. How much money is likely to be collected each year from levying the 2 % surcharge?
A. Based on preliminary billing information that we have been able to obtain from the utilities and current regulations, we estimate that the annual revenue from the surcharge will range from $600,000 to $1,000,000.
Q. How will the Town know how much the utilities collect each year through the 2% surcharge?
A. As part of the proposed bylaw, the utilities are required to submit an annual report, which, among other things, states the gross revenues, derived from their customers in Brookline.
Q. Will utilities keep the money that they collect or will they turn it over to the Town?
A. Individual utilities will each collect and manage the funds collected based on this 2% surcharge. The funds will be turned over to the Town only if the Town finds it necessary to hire the general contractor.
Q. If the utilities keep the surcharge that they collect, who will earn interest on the funds that are unspent?
A. The interest earned on collected and unspent funds will accrue to the unspent fund. In other words, all monies collected from the 2% surcharge plus the interest accrued on it will only be used for new projects to bury wires.
Q. If the utilities keep the surcharge, who will hold them accountable for their spending of the money and properly investing the funds that they are holding?
A. The proposed bylaw expands the reporting requirements for utilities so that a town can be assured that the money collected through the 2% surcharge is being spent only for projects to bury wires.
Q. Does the entire 2 % surcharge have to be used in the year that it is collected?
A. Unused funds can be carried over to the following years, but must be segregated and accounted for annually as belonging to the underground wiring program fund.
Q. Do utility companies have to spend the monies from the 2 % surcharge on projects to bury wires?
A. Yes, utilities will be required to spend all funds collected from the 2% surcharge for projects that will bury wires that are currently overhead. These funds cannot be used to maintain existing above or underground facilities.
Q. Can utility companies undertake projects to bury wires that are not funded by the 2 % surcharge?
A. Yes, the Bylaw requires that the utility companies spend not less than the amount collected from the 2 % surcharge. The Town would encourage the utility to spend more than the amount collected from the surcharge to bury wires.
Q. Who will pay for connecting the underground wires to buildings and removing old wires?
A. The cost for connecting the underground wires to buildings and removing old wires will be paid from the 2% surcharge.
Q. Can utilities use the 2% surcharge to maintain wires that are already underground?
A. No, the 2% surcharge will only be used to fund new projects to bury wires. Continued maintenance and repair to existing and future wires that are underground will be an ongoing operating cost that gets funded out of their regular revenue stream.
Q. How much is the estimated cost to the average Brookline homeowner?
A. The cost to a homeowner will depend on what services they utilize, and how much. The surcharge will be levied on services such as electric, cable TV, DSL, telephone, etc. For a $100 monthly utility bill, the additional cost would be $2 per month, or $24 per year. Typical households are likely to pay $30 to $60 per year depending on the extent of their use of wired services.
Q. What would be the increase in the value of your property if the wires are buried on your street?
A. Effects on property values are difficult to estimate. One Brookline resident has suggested that for comparable dwellings in Brookline with one having overhead wires in front and the other having the wires underground, the difference in valuation could be 2%. This 2% valuation on a $500,000 dwelling would be worth $10,000.
Q. Will everyone throughout the town be required to pay the 2% surcharge even if the wires on their street are already underground?
A. Yes, the surcharge will be levied on all wired utility bills throughout the Town.
Q. What will be done to prevent a severe financial burden that the 2% surcharge on utility bills would pose for low income households?
A. The proposed bylaw will exempt households that qualify for state mandated electricity discount rates from surcharges on their electrical bills. The Massachusetts Legislature currently requires our electrical service provider,
NSTAR, to offer discount rates to those eligible for fuel assistance or who participate in any one of 12 public programs for low-income people. These programs include Supplemental Social Security Income, Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Food Stamps, Head Start Medicaid, and Massachusetts Veteran’s benefits. Customers seeking a discounted rate must renew their eligibility each year. Customers may apply for discounts on line
https://www.nstaronline.com/secure/nstarsecure2/customer_service/discountrate_app.asp
Over four hundred households in Brookline currently received discounted electrical bills.
Q. What will be done to minimize damage to trees?
A. Planning and implementation of projects to bury wires will be carried out with consultation of the Town’s tree warden. On streets with high concentrations of historic trees, the burying of wires may be postponed until the trees have reached the end of their lives. One of the mandates of the proposed oversight board will be the protection of trees.
Q. How will the sequence of projects to bury wires be determined?
A. A set of criteria (guidelines) has been proposed for the selection of projects. This set of criteria is as follows:
Safety. Preference will be given to projects that are of greater importance in enhancing public safety.
Density. Priority will be given to streets with higher density residential use.
Public use. Priority will be given to streets and portions of streets with “community” rather than “private” land use.
Efficiency. Priority will be given to projects that offer particularly great benefit in relationship to cost. The coupling of road resurfacing with burying of wires, for example, will be considered to maximize efficiency in spending.
The proposed oversight board will draw upon the criteria in making recommendations for the sequencing of projects.
Q. Who will manage and co-ordinate the implementation of projects to bury wires across all parties involved – utility companies and Town departments?
A. The Department of Public Works will be administratively responsible for the projects to bury wires. We expect that the Town will engage a part-time consulting engineer who will work directly with the utilities and will obtain necessary permits. This consulting engineer will be paid with funds raised through the surcharge on utility bills. If the utilities cannot coordinate a project themselves, the town will use the alternative coordination plan in the proposed bylaw.
Q. Have any other Massachusetts towns been active in recent years in burying wires?
A. Other towns in Massachusetts such as Concord, Wellesley, Bedford, Duxbury, Nantucket, Holden and Needham have completed limited projects to bury wires. Other towns that currently have projects underway include Chelmsford, North Andover, and Westwood.
Q. What cities and towns in other states have undertaken programs to bury all of their wires?
A. San Antonio, TX and Colorado Springs, CO are municipalities that have received national attention for their comprehensive projects to bury utility wires.
Q. What benefit will the program have for those who live on streets whose wires are already underground?
A. The program will improve the aesthetics and appearance of the Town and, therefore, help to maintain and increase overall real estate values because it will be showing that the Town is progressive in maintaining its attractiveness. Because the burying of wires will also improve the reliability of services throughout the town, those who now live on streets with underground wires may also experience improved reliability.
Q. Will the project eliminate poles and wires that are on private property?
A. The scope of this Bylaw addresses only the poles and wires on public property. The wires and poles on private property are based on ‘right of ways’ previously negotiated between the utility companies and individual owners.
Q. What can homeowners do to require or persuade utilities to remove poles that are on private property?
A. Unit owners will need to petition the utility companies individually or as a group to remove the wires and poles from their respective properties. The oversight board will assist efforts to encourage utilities to remove poles on private property. Residents will be able to contact the DPW to get more specific information about who to petition and how to go about doing so. Verizon has also indicated a willingness to negotiate the elimination of its poles on private property in the planning of projects to bury wires along streets.
Q. What can be done to require that utilities pay for some or all of the costs of burying wires?
A. There is nothing that can be done legally to have the utility companies pay some or all the costs of burying wires. We expect that the utility companies will take advantage at the time of individual projects to complete adjacent sections outside the scope of the original project just because it is cost effective to do all at the same time. The Legislature can change the law to require utilities to pay some of the costs. If Brookline has an undergrounding program, it is in a better position to go to the Legislature to seek a modification in the law. Utilities can be expected to oppose any legislative changes that would impose costs upon them.
Q. Will the town gain increased revenues from the utilities from personal property taxes?
A. The Town can tax only underground wires. Overhead wires are not taxed. The four biggest wired utilities:
NStar, RCN, Comcast, and Verizon are currently bringing in more than $1.5 million in personal property taxes per year. As the streets in Brookline with overhead wires are converted to underground wires, the Town will realize substantial increases in personal property tax revenues from utilities.
Q. To what extent will overhead wires disappear with the replacement of wired telephones with cell phones, replacement of cable television with satellite TV services, and expansion of wireless networks?
A. Electrical services will continue to be wired. Further, for technical reasons, wired services will continue to have advantages over wireless services. There are security and interference concerns with wireless services. Further, because the adoption of new types of services by consumers is not simultaneous in any one community or on any given street, wires will continue to be needed. For all these reasons wires will be needed for the foreseeable future.
Q. When the utility poles are removed, who pays to have separate street lights installed?
A. New street lights will be part of the Town’s construction costs, and will be funded from the 2% surcharge.
Q. Are underground wires more reliable than overhead wires?
A. When underground wires are in conduits, they are not subject to storm damage. For this reason, underground wires are more reliable. In the proposed program, all underground wires will be placed in conduits. (Some wires that are currently underground are not in conduits.)
Q. To what extent is reliability of overhead wires an issue?
A. For the period of 1998 through 2003, the Brookline Fire Department responded to an average of 98 calls per year for downed wires. The department is rarely called out for problems with underground wires.
Q. To what extent does the creosote used on wooden utility poles pose a health threat?
A. Creosote is a carcinogenic that poses risks particularly to those who work on poles.
Q. How will citizen oversight be provided?
A. The bylaw includes a provision for creation of an appointed citizen oversight committee that will be active for the duration of the program. The Committee will be appointed by the Board of Selectmen. The Committee will be concerned with all aspects of the program. The Committee, for example, will make recommendations to the Board of Selectmen about the sequencing of projects, keep the public informed about the status of the program, monitor the spending of funds collected through the surcharges, assure attention to neighborhood concerns about implementation of projects to bury wires, monitor the adequacy of measures to limit the financial impact of the program on low-income households, and monitor measures to protect tree roots. The Committee may also explore additional funding sources and assist residents in efforts to persuade utility companies to remove poles from private property.
Q. What is the projected timetable? When will the program begin? When will Brookline begin to see results?
A. The work will be done through a series of projects that will be undertaken as funds become available. If a bylaw is passed in 2004,
- An oversight committee will be appointed in 2005.
- The first project will be selected in 2005 or 2006.
- Collection of utility bill surcharges will begin in 2007.
- Design work for the first project will be initiated in 2007.
- The first project will break ground in 2009.
- The first project will be completed in 2010 or 2011.
- The second project will be selected in 2007 and completed in
2012 or 2013.
- Subsequent projects will be launched every year or two depending on their scope and the funds that are available.
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| Downloads
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Final Report: Brookline Underground Wiring Committee October, 2005 |
| Burying Utility Wires in Brookline
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| Frequently Asked
Questions(FAQ)
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