Wasilla searches for alternative power line routes

WASILLA — If you’re unaware of the debate roiling between the city and Matanuska Electric Association, perhaps you’ve been up a pole taller than the ones the electricity cooperative wants to run along the Parks Highway.

If that’s the case, the city is hosting a pair of public workshops next week to gather public input and hopefully identify viable alternative routes for MEA to string high-voltage power lines from the hospital to its Herning substation. Both workshops are June 27 — one from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., and another from 7 to 9 p.m. — in the council chambers at Wasilla City Hall, 290 E. Herning Ave., Wasilla.

The workshops are the latest in a series of public meetings and hearings over the past nine months about MEA’s plan to upgrade its power lines, which, if the cooperative had its druthers, would route about three miles of line through the city along the Parks Highway.

Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright and city staff say that erecting the upgraded lines on 80- to 100-foot-tall towers along the highway will destroy the viewshed and the desirability of adjacent commercial property.

Rupright was out of town and unavailable to comment on the June 27 public hearings, but has said in the past that the city is not trying to block MEA’s plans to upgrade its lines and is open to helping the co-op find an alternative route that doesn’t include tall towers along the Parks.

“If you can find a little less imposing alternative, I’m willing to work with that,” he said prior to a May 14 Wasilla Planning Commission meeting where MEA’s application for the Parks upgrade was discussed.

That planning commission meeting led to another May 21 after a vote on MEA’s application was continued. That second meeting also ended without the commission taking a vote on the application. Instead, the vote was again continued at the urging of city staff who favor calling more public meetings, an action the MEA Board of Directors protested last week by passing a strongly worded resolution.

In that document, the MEA board accuses the city of “stall tactics” to delay the power line project. By failing to vote on the application, MEA’s resolution says the planning commission is trying to “force unreasonable delay upon the application.” It also alleges that the commission is in violation of its own rules because “time for review has expired without a decision by the city.”

Although the power line route has been discussed at about 10 public workshops and hearings, including the planning commission meetings, all of those discussions have included routes already identified and discounted by MEA, said Archie Giddings, Wasilla’s public works director.

“What we’re trying to do (with the June 27 meetings) is do a grassroots thing,” he said. “We don’t have a preferred route. We’re inviting the public and agencies to start drawing lines on a map. MEA had their right-of-way team look at routes and got the answer they thought was best.”

The planning commission meets again July 9, at which time the commission is expected to vote on the application.

While the June 27 meetings may bring something new to the table, MEA isn’t holding its breath that a viable alternative will be identified, said Kevin Brown, spokesman for the co-op.

“In the end, they have to respond to the question they were asked, which is about the Parks Highway route,” he said. “They may or may not look at the information from these additional meetings and find a better route and deny it and request another (application).”

That’s because MEA has already painstakingly examined five other alternative routes and the Parks Highway plan is the most direct and least expensive, Brown said.

Upgrading the lines along the Parks would cost about $9.75 million, according to MEA estimates. Rerouting the lines to run behind some of the Parks Highway properties would cost about $13.4 million, while routes that use Bogard Road and Cottle/Fairview Loop respectively would run $14.9 million and $13.9 million. Another option, to bury the lines, would cost nearly $40 million.

As for next week’s workshops, Brown said it’s probably for the best that MEA hasn’t been invited to participate.

“This is a Wasilla conversation and we want it to be clear to the public we are not in charge of this process and are not trying to influence this process,” he said.

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.

What: Public workshops to identify alternative routes for MEA’s proposed power lines.

When: Two meetings, both June 27; one 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., another 7 to 9 p.m.

Where: Council chambers at Wasilla City Hall, 290 E. Herning Ave., Wasilla

What: Wasilla Planning Commission meeting

When: 7 p.m., July 9

Where: Council chambers at Wasilla City Hall

• Visit tinyurl.com/na4zz2l to find links to the entire packet for the July 9 Wasilla Planning Commission meeting, along with links to numerous maps, photos and renderings of the proposed MEA power line project.

Preferred Parks Highway Route

Project length 6.4 miles

Est. No. of parcels 49

Est. residences passed 24

Est. businesses passed 58

Right of way direct costs $2.72 million

Construction costs $7.03 million

Total cost $9.75 million

Parks Highway Back Lot

Project length 6.7 miles

Est. No. of parcels 62

Est. residences passed 29

Est. businesses passed 72

Right of way direct costs $5.9 million

Construction costs $7.5 million

Total cost $13.4 million

Bogard Road Alternative

Project length 12.7 miles

Est. No. of parcels 150

Est. residences passed 46

Est. businesses passed 43

Right of way direct costs $1.19 million

Construction costs $12.505 million

Demolition costs $1.27 million

Total cost $14.965 million

Cottle/Fairview Loop Route

Project length 12.1 miles

Est. No. of parcels 58

Est. residences passed 65

Est. businesses passed 32

Right of way direct costs $2.09 million

Construction costs $11.875 million

Total cost $13.925 million

Original Parks Highway Route Underground

Project length 6.4 miles

Est. No. of parcels 49

Est. residences passed 24

Est. businesses passed 58

Right of way direct costs $2.72 million

Underground construction costs $34.32

Overhead construction costs $73.882 million

Total cost $40.922 million

Source: Matanuska Electric Association