City forcing pricy underground electrical ADU build

[Chris Miller]

Hi All! I'm currently building 2 detached ADU's in the city of Santa Monica,CA on a current 4plex. We are mid build and the city is telling me that we need to run underground electrical from the street. This would require incredibly expensive work as we would have to cut through a public street. And they're telling me that we have to create one main shut off for both panels which would force us to completely redo and upgrade all meters, panel, and go to 400 amp from 200. Basically, It gets crazy expensive. To the tune of $150-$200k. What I thought was going to happen was we would just run overhead wires to a 200 amp panel with its own shutoff which SCE said we indeed CAN do. It's the city that wants all new construction electrical underground. I'm currently trying to meet with the city over this. From what I'm looking into, ADU builds per the state are supposed to be affordable to build as far as utility connections go. Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any recommendations or advice,