AtoA History

December 21: CEA holds a public status update meeting, where they announced the reduction in project scope – from 94 properties on 4 blocks, to 20 properties on 1 block.

June 23: CEA holds a public status update meeting, where they explained their community involvement focus (obtaining easements), and reinforced that they will not undertake any redesign unless the community demonstrates that property owners will grant the necessary easements. Note that while CEA mailed notices all properties in AtoA, they did not directly contact the 36 property owners who don’t live in AtoA.

May 20: CEA announces a decision to reschedule AtoA construction from 2022 to 2023. Further, CEA sets an easements deadline of October 31, 2022, and schedules a public status update and presentation for June 23, 2022.
May 11: The North Star Community Council adopted a resolution in support of rescheduling AtoA construction to 2023. The resolution passed with zero opposed or abstained.

April 18: CEA notified me that they were no longer accepting easements, and that the project scope was being reduced to align with acquired land rights. CEA did not communicate a hard deadline for easements to AtoA property owners.

March 17: CEA participates in public Q&A session. The session was facilitated by the North Star Community Council (NSCC), and was promoted by the NSCC and several AtoA property owners. CEA declined to do a presentation. At the request of an AtoA property owner, CEA assembled a helpful handout of frequently-asked questions.
March 9: At the request of another AtoA property owner, the NSCC invited CEA to discuss the project at the NSCC’s monthly meeting. CEA participated in a Q&A with about a dozen NSCC and AtoA residents. As there were more questions than could be addressed within the NSCC meeting time limits, CEA was asked and agreed to participate in a public meeting with AtoA residents.

CEA sent easement requests to (as far as I can tell) approximately 45 property owners. The letter accompanying the easement provides little information about the project design, process or timeline, and does not include a due date for granting the easement.

CEA confirms Arctic To Aurora is on it’s 5-yr plan, though it extends construction to 2022.

MLP added Arctic To Aurora to its 5-yr undergrounding plan. It was the only new project added to the plan that year, from a field of dozens of possible projects. From MLP: “…due to public involvement, age of existing facilities, and potential safety conflicts, this project has been rated very high”. Design was scheduled for 2019 & 2020, and construction scheduled for 2021.

MLP did not add any new projects to its 5-yr plan. But MLP identified Arctic To Aurora as “one of the highest rated projects on the list of potential projects”.
North Star Community Council (NSCC) passed resolution in support of Arctic To Aurora.

AtoA team presented petition & signatures to NSCC.
AtoA team provided petition & signatures to MLP, and requested an assessment of the overhead infrastructure (is the neighborhood a good candidate for undergrounding?). For the assessment, MLP considered the age of existing equipment, how/where existing equipment was installed, safety concerns related to poles and wires, etc. MLP noted that the process is very competitive, with several other neighborhoods also under serious consideration.
Several property owners (from 20th, 21st, Blueberry and Borealis) engaged with MLP, after observing undergrounding construction on an adjacent block (18th & 19th Ave). They then gathered signatures for a petition in support of undergrounding the area of Arctic To Aurora.