[Dave_n_Tenn]

Originally Posted by Aquatique

We'd love to find a community with underground lines plus mature trees or at least not totally barren looking. We prefer an established feel without a lot of construction going on around us.

The Villages. They kept all those mighty Live Oaks they could. Mostly underground.

Retired from an Electric Utility. Let me add something to consider. Underground utilities does not mean no over head lines. There could be a transmission corridor or even a feeder running through a right-a-way or a substation. In addition... underground facilities need switching cabinets and pad mount transformers and they might be on your property... and they're always along the road.

PS... Sarasota is moving their facilities underground in phases. not sure where they're at on the project.

[cat1116]

How far down do these lines go? Is one state differ from another state?

What if someone doesn’t have a real big backyard and they would like to have an inground pool? I hope before someone gets too interested in a home, that they are informed of inground power lines and depth, and reminded that may or may not have an inground pool.

[Aquatique]

Originally Posted by Dave_n_Tenn

The Villages. They kept all those mighty Live Oaks they could. Mostly underground.

Retired from an Electric Utility. Let me add something to consider. Underground utilities does not mean no over head lines. There could be a transmission corridor or even a feeder running through a right-a-way or a substation. In addition... underground facilities need switching cabinets and pad mount transformers and they might be on your property... and they're always along the road.

PS... Sarasota is moving their facilities underground in phases. not sure where they're at on the project.

We are not of age yet to get into a 55+ community (I joked in another thread I should get a fake ID.)

I really appreciate the info you provided. What I want to avoid is the black power lines running to all the houses, with the poles in the front of the homes by the street. Transformers are ok, hopefully they can be somewhat concealed either by location or landscaping. But even if not I still prefer the little green transformer boxes over the black lines in my view. If we found a perfect property with above ground power lines we'd consider it if the lines were behind the home not running across the streets and front yards.

[Dave_n_Tenn]

If you landscape around a TX and the utility needs to have safe access... remember this is voltages up to 23,000 volts, your landscaping must not interfere with the safe operation by the crew.... if it does, there will be big pile of debris after the crew non gingerly removed them.... especially if there's an outage with people out of power.

Landscaping plants to "hide" transformers account for a very large amount of damage by roots getting into cables and electrical connections causing outages. Plant shallow rooted plants and read the label on the TX. It usually says 3 feet away sides and back 10' in front. Remember they need to work with hot sticks on the front.

[Aquatique]

Thanks Dave, very important information!

[HarryWhom]

FPL just buried the lines in the well established community of Sebastian.

[Aquatique]

Originally Posted by HarryWhom

FPL just buried the lines in the well established community of Sebastian.

Oooh really? The whole town?

[FL_Expert]

Originally Posted by Aquatique

I looked at MLS listings, street views, and youtube videos of Lakewood Ranch and Westchase. They both look cool and I get why people choose these communities. We'd prefer a neighborhood that has more of a hidden / under the radar quality. I had made another thread recently (asking about locations that are a little bit upscale, a little bit urban, and safe / low crime) and I got some great recommendations, even tried securing a rental but I suspect it was already taken, I didn't get a response from the listing agent. I realized that almost all of the suggested locations in that thread are just too trendy and popular for us. There were some other roadblocks that applied to the individual areas and so we were kind of back to square one. So I started thinking about New Urbanism communities that could provide a somewhat similar atmosphere as what we initially had in mind, and made a thread about that topic. Underground power lines came up in that thread, and since I'm not 100% set on a master planned mixed use community I wanted to make yet another thread to ask about this topic, since underground lines are a strong preference for me. Now I'm thinking I may give it one last try and lay it all out in a fresh thread, explaining more in depth what we are really looking for. I usually prefer to just ask broad questions and gather as much input as possible and then sort through it myself, but maybe it's better if I get as specific as possible with my inquiry.

I understand it’s difficult to clearly define exactly what it is you want out of your new community. I’m here to help so I’ll chime in if you elect to start another thread.

[Aquatique]

Originally Posted by FL_Expert

I understand it’s difficult to clearly define exactly what it is you want out of your new community. I’m here to help so I’ll chime in if you elect to start another thread.

Wow what a kind thing to say, thank you. You've been very helpful every time I've asked questions. I'm actually a little afraid that when I do make a thread really getting into details, it'll be overload for most people, other people will tell me such a place does not exist, and some people will be offended by my preferences or dislike me because of them and not want to help. But I am working on writing that thread, trying to include enough details but editing out extraneous blathering because believe me I can blather.

[beachmouse]

We’re in the Bluewater Bay big development just east of Niceville in the panhandle. ‘Town’ was platted out with buried power lines and we were part of the 1-2% of the county that didn't lose power during Hurricane Ivan, which was kind of eerie in some ways. A lot of Bluewater also remains heavily wooded. There are a few downsides of that though:

1- Area was a turpentine plantation before it was turned into housing. The short leaf pines planted for the turpentine days are not very wind tolerant and had a tendency to go down in even strong tropical storm level winds. Though at this point, the vast majority of them have been removed because of storms and storm concerns and more wind-hardy trees have often gone up in their place.

2- We are apparently the termite capital of the Southeast- something about the original developer tended to bury a lot of wood cleared out as neighborhoods were put in rather than burn it or haul it out

3- the 3 weeks a year when live oaks drop their leaves. Before we felt like we could afford a lawn service with a ‘vacuum mower’ we’d clear 100-120 bags of leaves from our lawn every spring. (We have several otherwise lovely live oaks in our yard)

Still overall we feel like it’s been a good place to have a house in these parts