ANAHEIM : City to Put Power Lines Underground

Unsightly utility poles and overhead power lines are expected to vanish from the city’s street-scape over the next five years as part of a $40-million project approved by the City Council.

Hailed by council members as a “long-term aesthetic improvement” to a city dependent on attractive tourist locations, the plan involves relocating power transmission and distribution lines underground.

“We all want it,” City Councilman Irv Pickler said. “We should have done this long ago.”

The largest portion of the project, scheduled for completion in 1997, calls for a $12-million transformation of the cluttered streets in the Disneyland area.

The proposal passed Tuesday in a unanimous vote of the council.

Mayor Fred Hunter credited fellow Councilman William D. Ehrle with pushing the plan toward completion and “putting the wires in the ground.”

“It’s just going to make things look better,” the mayor said, adding that the improvements are especially needed in the Disneyland area. “You go down there now and look at it. This is going to be a good long-term investment.”

The project is being funded by a combination of public utility rate charges, city redevelopment money and bonds sold for the construction of the $103-million Anaheim Arena.

Under the plan, work in the Disneyland area would begin in June along Harbor Boulevard and West Street, south of Katella Avenue.

Improvements on streets north of Harbor and surrounding the theme park would start in June, 1994, and be completed by June, 1997.

Pickler had said he would have liked the Disney area work to be done sooner, but utility officials said the work was scheduled before Disney recently selected Anaheim as the site for a $3-billion expansion.