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GRANDVIEW SILVER SPUR NEIGHBORS

Grandview Homes Neighborhood Web Site

Rancho Palos Verdes, CA  90275

Maintained as a courtesy for Grandview Silver Spur neighbors by:

This web site contains information on issues and topics of interest to Grandview residents, especially the interest in underground utilities for Grandview Silver Spur.

 The site is updated as current events dictate. If you have topics of interest that you wish to share with your Grandview Silver Spur neighbors, please submit your requests to Alison Gordon at the above e-mail address.

Please e-mail Alison Gordon at Drew@GreatNevada.Net or leave your comments and contact information in the text boxes below.

    AUGUST 28, 2005

Consideration of an Assessment District for Underground Utilities  

In early 2003 neighbors from Silver Spur area of Rancho Palos Verdes met  several times to explore options on how best to underground the utilities in the neighborhood. A petition was drafted by neighborhood volunteers and presented to  owners of homes in the Silver Spur Subdivision. Approximately 70% of the owners expressed interest in having utilities put underground. The petition was delivered to the Public Works Department and a neighborhood meeting with the department,  a Southern California Edison representative and several members of the city council on June 23, 2003.

At the time, RPV had only a draft guideline that addressed undergrounding utilities in a neighborhood. It would not be until May 2005 before a final guideline would be approved. 

Guidelines to Underground Utilities approved by City Council - May 17, 2005

The guidelines to underground utilities in residential neighborhoods is now official. After being in draft form for the past several years, RPV Public Works Director, Dean Allison, recommended the city council approve the Public Works Department most recent draft. On May 17, 2005 the council voted to approve the guidelines effective June 2005.

Please click on   Final Guidelines_June_2005.pdf  to review the guidelines.    

The guidelines require a strong neighborhood involvement in any utility underground project. Not only does the neighborhood need at least a 66.6% approval of the project but the neighbors must also account for those owners who claim  financial hardship or disapprove of the project.

In May of 2003, approximately 12 neighborhood  volunteers spent numerous hours over 30 days to draft a petition, conduct several neighborhood meetings on the project, distribute the petition and collect approval signatures and present the results to the RPV Planning Department. Needless to say, the process was very labor intensive requiring dozens of hours on part of each volunteer.

It should be stressed that the RPV Planning Department publicly speaks in favor of underground utilities for RPV neighborhoods. Also, it is believed that all city council members are supportive of underground utilities. It is a reality though that the guidelines passed by RPV requires a super-majority.

In the opinion of many of the original 12 Silver Spur neighborhood volunteers, a super-majority of 66.6% in itself is a "deal wrecker".  

Since the initial petition two years ago, there has been about a 10% change of ownership in Grandview Silver Spur. One can easily see that a petition can get outdated in a short time. As an underground project is expected to take years to complete, one can also see that to keep a project updated is going to require an extensive amount of volunteer time.

 Add to this the administrative requirements of the neighborhood to provide the city with a report of project dissidents, and you add more work for volunteers.

As of this date, August 28, 2005, the original twelve (12) Grandview Silver Spur volunteers are inactive. At some point in the near future, some of the volunteers plan to send the RPV Planning Department and the City Council a recommendation to change the super-majority aspects of the guidelines along with other constructive suggestions.

In the interim, if any Grandview Silver Spur homeowner wants to pursue the underground utility project, please contact Alison Via email below. There are twelve openings available on our volunteer staff.

Best Regards,

Alison Gordon

Questions regarding this Web Site please contact Drew Gordon at 702-871-0223 or email AJY@GreatNevada.Net