Council allows 16-foot in-lieu payment instead of full undergrounding for Sixth Street apartment project

Beaumont City Council on May 6 approved a conditional waiver that lets the developer of the Ages Apartments at 1360 East Sixth Street pay a $33,136 in-lieu fee for 16 feet of overhead line instead of relocating a single existing power pole and fully undergrounding utilities along the project frontage.

The decision came after a two-hour public hearing and technical presentations from planning staff and the applicant’s team. Jillian Fountain, associate planner, summarized the planning commission’s prior action and staff’s recommendation to uphold the commission’s conditional approval while requiring the applicant either to underground utilities, pay an in-lieu fee based on a utility cost estimate, or fully underground all overhead lines. Fountain said the project “is currently exempt under 12.18.070(g” and explained the code permits an in-lieu fee for certain small projects but that the applicant is responsible for providing the unit price needed to calculate that fee.

The applicant,…