NEWBURYPORT — Plans to update and rehab Brown Square are already in progress, but now the city may see another big change in the area surrounding the square.

The city's senior project manager, Geordie Vining, has filed a request with the City Council to support a process that would remove the overhead utility lines and poles along Pleasant Street for the block between Green and Titcomb Streets, and place them underground, with the hope of burying even more utility lines in the future. To pay for it, residents would see a small hike in their electric bill.

Vining said the idea of moving more of the city's overhead utilities underground has long been a discussion topic in the city, particularly in the areas around the "core downtown," upper Green Street, High Street, along the Bartlet Mall, upper State Street or Water Street.

The Brown Square project could be a starting point, or pilot program, for any future plans, Vining said.

The project would be financed by a 7 percent surcharge on customers' utility delivery and transmission services, which is about 2 percent of a customer's bill, Vining told the councilors.

National Grid has given the city as estimate of about $300,000 for the project, plus or minus 25 percent, Vining said yesterday. The surcharge for the average residential customer would be about $1.09 per month, or $13.14 over a year, according to the information provided to council.

Under state law, the City Council and Planning Board must call a public hearing to discuss this proposal, file a report with the City Clerk and ultimately pass an ordinance that will allow National Grid to remove the poles and overhead lines and place them in an underground system.

Many of the utilities in downtown were already placed underground a generation ago, something that has added to the city's character and enhanced the beauty of the city and its "sense of place," Vining said.

But there are also other benefits, he said.

In putting lines underground, there is also less potential for damage, he said.

Accidents, ice storms, falling tree limbs, "all of those environmental hazards become moot," Vining said.

By putting this plan in place, full size, disease-resistant Elm trees along Pleasant Street and Brown Square could be restored or replaced, Vining said.

"The existing trees along Pleasant Street in Brown Square have suffered from excessive pruning and distortion by utility crews, and any future large trees planted as replacements will share the same fate unless the utilities are placed underground," Vining wrote in his message to the City Council.