The North Bay Village Underground

Burying the Powerlines

Wednesday, October 30, the Village held a full scale meeting with representatives of FPL, ATT and Atlantic Broadband about the long discussed burying of the powerlines in North Bay Village.  

First a quick history:

• in 2006, following the nearly 2 week blackout caused by Hurricane Wilma, the Village proposed a bond measure to pay for undergrounding the utility wires.   It passed with over 60% of the votes.  
• in 2016, after a decade of no action, the Village again voted by 55% to bury the power lines. 

How Come It Didn't Happen?

In the first discussions in 2006, FPL refused to participate with the Village in forming cost estimates and actively took the stance that burying power lines would lead to more disruption of power not less.   By 2016, FPL had softened a bit but still refused to engage in cost discussions and the second initiative relied on the best estimates.   

Without the cooperation of the major players, FPL, ATT and Atlantic Broadband, the project was not seen as feasible.  

What's Different in 2019?

• FPL has changed their position on buried powerlines and now favors them.
• FEMA approved an $11 million grant to North Bay Village for burying the power lines.

A few things.  Following Irma when most of the damage was because of wind harming the overhead structure, a statewide push to underground utilities came to the forefront and FPL has now worked with the state to bury as many powerlines as feasible.   

For the first time, FPL worked with the Village to create cost estimates and FPL has actually now done this work in several communities around Florida.  The benefits seem clear.   

In addition, we have Mayor Brent Latham leading the city and along with Village Manager Ralph Rosado, they seem to actually be able to execute a plan.   

Then came the news that FEMA had approved an $11 million grant to assist in burying the power lines as part of our adaptability strategy to keep reliable power going during storm events.   

Wednesday's Meeting

In spite of being well advertised and a subject that everyone seems to have an opinion on, the meeting was sparsely attended.  Fewer than 10 residents were actually present to see the presentations and ask questions.   That leaves approximately 8,263 North Bay Villagers who will be surprised when the project starts and who will say "Nobody told me!" when the project starts. 

I'm just going to give the highlights here.  The detail can be seen at the village video link here.  

• Approximate Total Cost to Underground the Village:  $33 million. 
• Grant from FEMA: $11 million
• Net Cost:  $22 million

Annual Tax Increases for a property:  Approximately $95 per $100,000 of property tax valuation.  

Projected Benefits:

• A more reliable utility delivery for electricity, cable and phones
• A more attractive landscape without the powerlines
• A greater ability to diagnose and repair when there are power disruptions.

Possible Impacts:

• Buildings needs to install new breakers and in some cases update their whole electrical systems.  This can run from $2,800 (based on Golden Beach's experience) to $100,000 if your entire electrical system needs to be redone.  There is a $5,000 credit built into the bond.  Any excess will be the homeowner's responsibility.
• Transformer boxes will be placed in front of buildings on a public easement (every other house and building) 
• The streets will be disrupted again and trenches need to be dug on private property.  
• The project will last about 5 years.   

Possible Downsides:

• At least 80% of the property owners have to agree to change their utilities to underground for the project to be feasible.  
• The cost will vary from household to household and if a householder decides not to participate, they will continue to get their electricity from overhead lines which negates the aesthetic benefit.   (Note:  holdouts will be the last to be restored in the event of power failure)
• With the advent of 5 G technology, ATT will have the right to build 38 foot tall towers at about every 500 feet.  This is state law and cannot be overriden by municipalities.  5G has started and will probably be ubiquitous in 10 years or so and if ATT (or others) do not use existing structures such as buildings or streetlights, then just like the rest of Florida, we could once again have poles everywhere.   

One More Consideration:  

FPL has announced plans to underground most of the state anyway.   By playing a waiting game, it's possible but not definite that North Bay Village will be undergrounded without additional local costs to our municipal government.   My view:  that seems a little thin but I mention it because it was brought up.

We Have To Vote Again:

Yep.  Since neither of the two ballot initiatives had reasonable costs on them, the commission needs to review the situation, draft a ballot measure and we have to vote again.   

The most likely outcome will be breaking up the project into three or four projects so that the finance streams can be executed as the project goes forward.   

It will be complicated however the commission decides to frame it and it will probably be on the ballot in the spring 2020 primary elections.   

Kevin Vericker

November 1, 2019