The Denton City Council voted Tuesday to approve most of Denton Municipal Electric's preferred route for a northeast Denton power line project but delayed action on the northernmost leg after residents filled City Hall to oppose it.
The decision to delay a vote on the so-called yellow route drew applause from many in the crowd who argued DME had failed to adequately study alternatives or provide reliable cost estimates.
Council members directed DME to study alternatives to the yellow route, which would connect the Denton North substation at Locust Street and Hercules Lane with a new Kings Row substation at Loop 288.
DME General Manager Phil Williams said he was unsure when the project would return to the council.
"I will meet with staff tomorrow, and we'll figure out where to go from here," he said.
Deanna Padgett left the meeting beaming. She lives along the yellow route at Hercules and Sheraton Road.
"I deeply appreciate the councilmen for looking at alternate routes," Padgett said. "I just am overwhelmed."
The council approved the southern portion of the route, known as the purple route, which will connect the planned Kings Row substation to a substation off Spencer Road to the south.
The entire preferred route is expected to cost $20.2 million and displace three homes, all along the southern leg, officials have said. The project involves rebuilding a transmission line and replacing aging wood poles with steel poles.
The project inspired a series of heavily attended neighborhood meetings this summer, but public opposition lessened in September when DME agreed to revise the route to avoid the East Oaks neighborhood near Audra Lane.
The first public hearing in October attracted only four speakers.
Since then, residents along Hercules mobilized to fight the yellow route, saying a high-voltage transmission line on 100-foot metal poles would devalue their neighborhood and limit their ability to use their land.
DME officials say they wouldn't need to buy homes along the yellow route, but would buy wider easements in places.
Since space is tight, the power line would rest on arms hanging over Hercules to meet electric codes requiring 37.5 feet from the line to the easements' edge, officials have said.
The existing line carries 69,000 volts but would be rebuilt to eventually handle 138,000 volts, requiring a total easement of 75 feet. Most existing easements along the route are 35 feet wide or narrower, officials have said.
Area resident Johnny Davis said some homes on Hercules sit only about 25 feet off the road. He and his neighbors urged DME to avoid Hercules by running the line along Loop 288 from Kings Row to Locust.
The change would increase the yellow route's cost from $7 million to $11 million, mostly by forcing DME to buy additional easements outside the loop, Williams said.
Davis and other residents asked for a more detailed accounting of DME's cost estimates. Former mayoral candidate Bob Clifton, a frequent DME critic, displayed a letter a city attorney sent him acknowledging that one estimate for a different stretch of the project was "apparently based upon a staff member's estimate and nothing more."
Some Hercules-area residents said they learned of the yellow route from neighbors at the 11th hour, even though DME officials say they mailed notices and called residents within 500 feet of the route inviting them to public meetings.
Mayor Mark Burroughs said the speakers raised "several significant issues."
Residents may have been misled by a postcard for the last neighborhood meeting that said DME was recommending the purple route, he said. The card made no reference to the yellow route.
For more information on the project, including route maps, visit www.dmepower.com .
LOWELL BROWN can be reached at 940-566-6882. His e-mail address is lmbrown@dentonrc.com . IN OTHER ACTION
Also Tuesday, the Denton City Council:• Heard an update on the city's efforts to overhaul the natural gas drilling code. City staff members are working with a task force in hopes of bringing a proposal to the council by spring, planning director Mark Cunningham said. Several council members urged Cunningham to return with a proposed ordinance as soon as possible.• Approved a contract amendment with Haltom City-based Protect Environmental Services Inc. providing $250,000 to clean up a chemical spill at the Ray Roberts Lake water treatment plant. The spill involved about 5,000 gallons of a "caustic solution" from the plant's scrubber unit, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, which is investigating. City officials say the quality of drinking water wasn't jeopardized and no one was injured. • Approved an ordinance creating a separate development process designed to speed up construction of schools and other local government projects. Under the government process, some pre-construction steps can take place concurrently rather than one at a time.• Approved agreements with two Denton County commissioners providing $100,000 in matching funds to help implement the city's ongoing bicycle and pedestrian accommodation plan. The council previously set aside $100,000 in city funds to start implementing the plan in the current budget year, meaning the total budget for the plan is now $200,000. The county money will help pay for bicycle accommodations between the downtown transit center on East Hickory Street and the University of North Texas, and on Pennsylvania Drive from the Interstate 35E frontage road to Teasley Lane. • Directed staff members to continue working on a proposed ordinance that would require reflective equipment on bicycles ridden at night. One draft of the ordinance would require reflective tires or a reflector on the spokes of each wheel, but staff members are expected to add other equipment as additional options. The ordinance is meant to create a safer riding environment and address a gap in state law, which requires headlamps and rear reflectors but not side reflectors, city officials said.
-Lowell Brown
