A case of homebuilders’ construction getting ahead of Pacific Gas and Electric led to sparks flying during a Kings County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday as residents await electrification to move into their homes.
Kings County Supervisor Richard Valle sought to take the utility to task, only for the utility to push back on salacious allegations and call for collaboration to resolve the task.
The backstory: Developer D.R. Horton has been in talks with PG&E to electrify the new Fox Run development in Corcoran since 2021.
- Families were ready to move into the homes in August 2023, but a delay with PG&E connecting the development to the electrical grid has continued to push move-in day further back.
State of play: While the Kings County Board of Supervisors was only agendized for an update from PG&E on affordability and income graduated fixed charge programs, the discussion largely centered on the Corcoran development.
- Supervisor Richard Valle, who represents the area, said D.R. Horton paid PG&E $98,000 to electrify the development.
- But PG&E delayed the project because the utility needed easements from neighboring landowners which had not yet been acquired.
- PG&E said it had communications with D.R. Horton dating back to July 2021 about the requirements to electrify the development and requested a redesign on the project to provide electricity. The builder plowed ahead with construction without adjusting its design.
What we’re watching: Valle has taken to social media to demand the presence of PG&E’s chief executive to help solve the problem, asking PG&E representatives to set up a meeting next month.
- He also requested that Kings County agendize an item next month to have an official public meeting with PG&E, D.R. Horton and the City of Corcoran to facilitate an agreement.
What they’re saying: Neither the county nor PG&E could discuss specifics of the project at Tuesday’s meeting because it was not on the agenda, which would have violated the Brown Act, but both sides spoke in generalities.
- “PG&E just doesn’t willy-nilly request a redesign without any reason or any validation behind that,” PG&E Senior Manager Greg Race told the board.
- Valle said his focus is on PG&E because the utility is the only group that can turn on the power.
- “That’s all that I care about, to get these people in their homes,” Valle said. “It’s their devastating, stressful circumstance.”
- Nathan Alonzo, a public affairs specialist with PG&E, added, “It’s going to be very productive when all of us who are leaders and own a piece of this issue come together and we can own our individual parts, marry them together and find the path forward as quickly and as productively as possible. That’s what we have been doing since we first met four months ago and brought all stakeholders together, and that’s what we will continue to do until these folks can get in their homes.”
