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Hon. Sharon Bulova
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors
12000 Government Center Parkway
Fairfax, VA 22030‐0071
Re: SB 1759 U.S. 1 Undergrounding Comments
Dear Chairman Bulova:
Thank you for your letter to Governor Northam regarding Senate Bill 1759.
I have discussed these issues repeatedly with County staff and it was repeatedly discussed
during the legislative process and with other Supervisors. The two concerns raised are not issues for
the legislation, but issues for negotiation between the County and the utilities as part of actually
implementing underground utilities on U.S. 1. The bill is solely a funding mechanism.
There is nothing in Senate Bill 1759 that forces Fairfax County to sign a contract to be
responsible for the costs of the undergrounding of any specific utilities or prohibits the County from
negotiating those costs with the utility. Notwithstanding that, in an abundance of caution, I will
recommend to the Governor to add language making clear that the County is allowed to negotiate
costs with the utility even if it is unnecessary.
Likewise, there is nothing in the legislation that dictates who or what may provide the initial
capitalization of the undergrounding project or limits the involvement of other utilities in the
undergrounding process. As I have repeatedly told County staff, the Commonwealth has never – ever –
funded a utility undergrounding aside from one pilot project to underground high voltage transmission
lines (the ones on big towers) that was authorized in 2018. These have always been locally funded.
I have discussed the above analysis with the stakeholders and the Governor’s Staff and they
concur in my conclusions.
Over the last three years, the Commonwealth has authorized Dominion to recover the costs of
the undergrounding of residential electrical lines that are prone to outages as a means to reduce the
overall ongoing impact on ratepayers of storm damage who ultimately are required to pay such costs.
However, there is no program to recover costs for undergrounding commercial projects, especially
when there is no reliability component and it is mainly done for aesthetic benefits.
Although the County’s specific request was not really clear, if the Governor were to offer an
amendment requiring a contribution from the Commonwealth to this project, it would likely result in
the legislation failing.
I have also advised County staff that there is nothing in this legislation prohibiting the County
from utilizing this new authority to fund a revenue bond to provide the capital for this project. A
revenue bond would not impact the County’s full faith and credit and thus not impact the County’s
other capital priorities in schools, parks, or public safety.
I recognize that the County staff has little experience implementing these projects and has
many questions. However, I believe many of these issues are surmountable many localities including
the City of Fairfax, Williamsburg and James City County have undertaken significant utility
undergrounding efforts in their jurisdictions. Prince William County is also in the process of
undergrounding its utilities on all of its 10 miles of U.S. 1. I am hopeful that if Prince William can get it
done, we can do it as well in Fairfax County with our much larger tax base.
I am especially optimistic given that Verizon has pledged to cover the cost of undergrounding
their lines from Jeff Todd Way to Sherwood Hall Lane and their full expense if a small expansion of the
utility duct bank is made to include their lines. They estimate this additional expense would be $5
million. With their contribution, the total estimated cost of undergrounding utilities from Jeff Todd
Way to Sherwood Hall Lane as confirmed in my meeting with all of the utilities and Supervisors Storck
and McKay in December has gone down from $60 million to $36 million. Given that VDOT has agreed
to contribute $15 million, the remaining uncovered expense is now only $21 million – slightly more
than 1/3rd of the County’s annual surplus last year.
Underground utilities are part of modern transit‐oriented development and the U.S. 1 Corridor
will not reach its fullest potential if we do not ensure this is done as part of EMBARK. Passing the cost
on to property owners via proffers will limit development opportunities made possible by the coming
$1 billion transit investment by the Commonwealth on U.S. 1 and Governor Northam’s designation of
the Corridor as a Federal Opportunity Zone. Undergrounding utilities after the road is constructed is
inefficient and maximally expensive.
Our constituents and businesses in Eastern Fairfax County are virtually unanimous in desiring to
see this accomplished. I look forward to working with the Board to make this happen as we work to
ensure that the EMBARK Route 1 vision is leveraged to its fullest extent.
Likewise, it is my hope that once the County has gained the experience of this pilot project, it
could use its expertise to consider making improvements in other older areas of the County in need of
revitalization such as Annandale, Bailey’s Crossroads, Seven Corners, or downtown McLean. If we
figure this out, taxpayers across the entire County could benefit.
Finally, I also would like to note that planning for underground utilities will give the county a
voice in the placement of pending 5G communications facilities in commercial corridors. Last year, I
negotiated language in SB405 that allowed the Fairfax County to have a say in 5G facility placement if a
transportation corridor was scheduled for underground utilities:
B. Nothing in this article shall prohibit a locality from disapproving an application submitted under
subsection A of § 15.2-2316.4:1 or for any zoning approval required for a standard process
project:. . .
2. That proposes to locate a new structure, or to co-locate a wireless facility, in an area where all cable and
public utility facilities are required to be placed underground by a date certain or encouraged to be
undergrounded as part of a transportation improvement project or rezoning proceeding as set forth in
objectives contained in a comprehensive plan, if:
b. The locality allows the co-location of wireless facilities on existing utility poles, government-owned
structures with the government's consent, existing wireless support structures, or a building within
that area;
c. The locality allows the replacement of existing utility poles and wireless support structures with
poles or support structures of the same size or smaller within that area; and
d. The disapproval of the application does not unreasonably discriminate between the applicant and
other wireless services providers, wireless infrastructure providers, providers of telecommunications
services, and other providers of functionally equivalent services.
If there is no undergrounding requirement in the comprehensive plan, then the County loses
individualize authority to cite 5G antennae. Expanding anticipated underground utilities would help
restore the County’s authority.
Thank you for the feedback and look forward to working together to see this done.
Sincerely Yours,
Senator Scott A. Surovell
36th District
cc: Senator Adam P. Ebbin
Delegate Paul Krizek
Delegate Mark D. Sickles
Supervisor Daniel T. Storck
Supervisor Jeffrey C. McKay
Mr. Bryan Hill, Fairfax County
Mr. Walter Clarke, Fairfax County Planning Commission
Mr. James Migliaccio, Fairfax County Planning Commission
Ms. Judy Harbeck, Mt. Vernon Council of Citizens
Mr. Earl Flanagan, Mt. Vernon Council of Citizens
Mr. John Ribble, Mt. Vernon Council of Citizens
Mr. Chris Soule, Lee District Association of Civic Organizations
Ms. Holley Dougherty, Mt. Vernon‐Lee Chamber of Commerce
Ms. Edythe Kelleher, Southeast Fairfax Development Corporation
Ms. Julie Coons, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce
Mr. Bob Blue, Dominion Resources
Mr. Rick Cornwell, Verizon Telecommunications
Mr. Barrett Storck, Cox Communications
Mr. Ramsey Meiser, Federal Realty Investment Trust
Mr. Carlo Heard, B.F. Saul Corporation