After a lengthy battle with Southern California Edison, a group of Chino Hills homeowners and city officials watched Wednesday as the first of the massive electrical towers in the city started getting dismantled.

Edison moved crews and heavy equipment into the area to begin the process of removing the 198-foot tall towers, which are a part of the Tehachapi Renewable Transmission Project.

Members of the grassroots group Hope For The Hills mobilized Wednesday at the end of Garden Court to watch a tower come down. Group member Joanne Genis was going to grill hotdogs for residents who are waiting.

Residents and city officials have been anticipating the removal of the towers ever since the state Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 in July to require Edison to underground the lines through 3.5 miles of the city, reversing a 2009 PUC decision allowing the utility to build extra-high towers through the city.

Undergrounding the lines would start at an Edison easement at Pipeline Avenue and the 71 Freeway and continue west through residential areas of the city.

But before that can begin, the utility must remove about 16 of the towers in the right-of-way, of which 11 are tubular steel towers and 5 are lattice towers. Each tubular tower is 140,000 pounds while the lattice towers are 130,000 pounds.

According to Edison, the process will take up to two days to remove each tower and another three days to fill the foundations.

Edison also will be taking down the partially built tower on Peyton Drive on Wednesday and Thursday.