Power line route gets the green light

WASILLA — Complaints and objections from dozens of homeowners opposed to a proposed power line route neither derailed nor delayed Wasilla planning commissioners Tuesday night.

Commissioners voted 3-1 to approve the second of two alternative routes proposed by the Matanuska Electric Association. The vote brings a close to the debate over the general corridor the lines will take between the Herning and Lazelle substations, and clears the way for specific negotiations with property owners on the particular route the 115-kilovolt lines will take through the city. Many property owners showed up to the meeting to voice concerns or opposition to the plan. A separate borough licensing and permitting process will also need to be considered, MEA officials said. The project will cost about $9 million.

For some property owners, all of the route choices were equally undesirable. Property owners fretted about the effect power plants might have on their bodies and loved ones; they worried that their property values would decrease, that their views would be ruined. Several said they preferred MEA’s original Parks Highway route, and preferred burying the lines. Several said they didn’t trust MEA at all.

Commissioners and property owners agreed on one point: any of the three options was likely to make someone unhappy.

“Would you rather have a beating, a whipping, or a black eye?” Evelyn Hardin called out at one point.

Autumn Bentz echoed a frequently repeated sentiment that city officials were attributing greater value to commercial properties than to residential properties.

“I think we’re being the sacrificial lambs in a lot of ways to the commercial businesses, which is sad,” she said.

According to a map that can be found online at mea.coop/wasillaatline, he approved route runs roughly from the Parks Highway near Hay Street south and west parallel to Old Matanuska Road, past neighborhoods in the Davis Road, Fairview Loop and Cotton Drive areas; it will veer south past the neighborhoods in the area of Valley Side Circle, Bay View Drive and Althea Street before turning north to the Herning Substation.

The presence of power lines near commercial properties would have less of an impact, Bentz said.

“Like everybody else says, everybody’s going to go,” she said. “People don’t care. When we go to a business, we aren’t looking at the value of the property. We just want to go get our stuff and go home.”

In discussion, at least two commissioners mentioned possibly taking more time to evaluate possible alternatives. Commissioner Loren Means cast the dissenting vote, and said he wasn’t happy with how the whole process.

“I think there might be a better possible way, but I don’t have a suggestion for it,” he said. “If I had to choose (Alternate 2) is the one, and I don’t like it.”

Commissioner Jessica Dean denied that the commission was fostering economic development at the expense of private citizens. Many local residents depend on the stores for their livelihoods, Dean said.

“People may go in and out of stores intermittently, but people work in those places all day every day, so if that were the reason for looking at a commercial route versus more residential, it’s a little bit easier — not preferred, and I’m not saying this lightly — but it’s a little easier for a resident to move versus 200 people to not have a job there,” she said.

Others, like commission chair Glenda Ledford, painted a starker line. Infrastructure and economic development were inevitable and inseparable, Ledford said.

“Economic development is a huge part of this community,” she said. “When I came here, I’m like the rest of you. There was one stoplight. Look where we’re at now. But we are growing and we will continue to grow. Having said that, we have got to build this infrastructure. Are we going to like everything that happens? Heavens no. You know, I don’t like all of the traffic on Main Street, because I could remember when I could easily run across Main Street, but I can’t now.”

MEA communications director Julie Estey smiled when asked what’s next.

“Now the work starts,” she said.

According to an MEA press release, work on the line will likely begin in the summer of 2017.

MEA attorney Dan Beardsley said the vote was the culmination of years of effort, analysis and feedback. A lot of work still remains, he said.

“We will still need to meet with individual owners,” he said. “They’ve approved a corridor, and within that corridor, there’s probably some areas for moving around a little bit. And we’ll meet with individual owners to say ‘What is the best situation? Can we alleviate some of these concerns?’ So we will still have some discussions, but our problem up until now has been which way this would go at all.”

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.