Above ground fixtures for undergrounding can include a 3 x 3 foot green transformer box (unless it is a terminator box which is 3 x 6 feet), a pedestal for ATT phone service, a pedestal for Time Warner Cable and yellow poles in front for protection.  Each of the box and pedestals requires 18 inches of clearance on all sides.  In addition, if the pad is installed on the side of a hill, then an 8 inch thick concrete block wall is erected around the pad on the uphill sides.  What this means is that even though the City is staking where the transformer boxes are, they are not showing that the pad is much larger and could be 6 to 8 feet deep and 9 to 11 feet long (unless you have a terminator box in which case the installation would be bigger.)

We think these installations are UGLY.  See examples in Figs 8 and 9.  A major point of undergrounding is to make the community look better, not worse. 

Solution

We propose that the boxes and poles be designed so that they are hidden.  This is common practice in new developments.  See Figs 10 and 11 for examples of how this might look.  The additional cost of designing and building the camouflage would be less than 2% of the total cost.  Why spend $12 million and not make it look good?