Tucson Electric's new crosstown power-line effort draws fire

Tucson Electric Power Co. has relaunched its effort to build a new high-voltage transmission line from the south side through midtown, with a new name and an emphasis on the reliability benefits the project will bring.

But the project now known as the Midtown Reliability Project still faces stiff opposition from the city of Tucson and neighborhood leaders, who say the addition of new lines and power poles up to 110 feet tall — running through or astride some historic neighborhoods — would create visual blight, cut property values and violate city ordinances banning new, overhead transmission lines on “gateway” corridors like North Campbell Avenue.

And TEP recently lost a bid to overturn a city zoning examiner’s ruling rejecting the company’s request for a variance for a substation that is key to the project.

City and neighborhood leaders say TEP should pay to install the lines underground, but the utility says that would cost at least 10 times more than installing overhead lines — some $80 million extra — and it would be improper to impose those costs on all ratepayers under its longstanding policy and a recently adopted state directive.

And Tucson city voters last May rejected a ballot proposition to adopt a new TEP city franchise agreement including a fee to fund the underground installation of the line, then known as the Kino to DeMoss Petrie Transmission Project.

The 138-kilovolt line would run from a substation at South Kino Parkway and East 36th Street, north past the University of Arizona campus to a substation on the north side of Banner-University Medical Center and then to the DeMoss Petrie substation off West Grant Road east of Interstate 10.

Needed upgrades

TEP says the upgraded and new line is badly needed to deliver more power to the University of Arizona and improve reliability across the entire midtown area, which is now served by a 46kv system.

TEP initially reached out about the relaunched line project to about 100,000 local residents, 62 neighborhoods and various government and agency stakeholders for an open house attended by about 125 people in September.

The utility plans to hold another open house from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 16, at the DoubleTree-Reid Park, 445 S. Alvernon Way. For more information, go to tep.com/midtown-reliability-project.

TEP’s Midtown Reliability Project essentially addresses the same Kino-DeMoss Petrie transmission-line proposal, but starts without line segments proposed in the original plan.

However, the new project effort starts with a study area that has been extended east from North Campbell Avenue to South and North Country Club Roads.

While TEP will use the prior proceedings, which included extensive stakeholder meetings, to inform the new process, the idea is to start anew, Barrios said.

“We are trying to take a fresh look at everything and again, the study areas are a little different,” he said. “So maybe there are some options out there that we haven't considered. Maybe there are some ideas that haven't been submitted to us. And so that's why we've restarted the process, we want to make sure we take the most thorough look at the study area as we can.”

Opportunities, constraints

The study area is bounded roughly by Interstate 10 to the west, East Kleindale Road to the north, East 36th Street to the south and just east of North Country Club to the east.

Rather than propose line segments, TEP in its initial project study maps has identified “route opportunities,” where the line could potentially go, and “route constraints,” where line location is constrained by physical, regulatory or political issues.

Areas of constraint include the UA campus, South Kino Parkway and North Campbell Avenue north to East Fort Lowell Road, and East Broadway from downtown to Country Club.

TEP is looking at several criteria that must be considered for a recommendation by the state Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee and ultimate approval by the Arizona Corporation Commission.

“One of the things we look for are areas that already have utilities, because then we're not disturbing an area that hasn't been disturbed,” Barrios said. “And so we're saying, you know, we're sort of asking ‘folks, where do you think it would be more compatible, and where do you think it would be less compatible?’”

Barrios noted that installing the 138kv system will allow the utility to retire and remove much of the 46kv equipment including existing poles, though some with co-located phone and other lines would have to stay.

Burden vs. benefits

Nevertheless, TEP’s renewed planning effort has drawn fire from city officials and neighborhood leaders.

In comments sent to TEP, the board of the historic Jefferson Park Neighborhood south of West Grant and west of North Campbell said transmission lines running in and out of the planned Vine Substation would go through the neighborhood, damaging the historic integrity of one of the city’s only two Neighborhood Preservation Zones.

“It is simply inconceivable that lines and enormous poles will be allowed to pass above ground through a residential neighborhood and historic district, just a few feet from homes, churches and a nursing home/rehabilitation facility,” the board wrote. “Jefferson Park should not be expected to shoulder the enormous burden of ensuring that the UA, UAMC-Banner, and other neighborhoods enjoy upgraded, reliable electric service.”

The neighborhood said it wants TEP to move the planned substation to a site away from residential areas.

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Barrios said the residents of Jefferson Park also will enjoy the same improved service across midtown, and rerouting the line away from the neighborhoods would defeat its purpose.

“The further away you go, the less efficient it is, the more neighborhoods you disturb, and ultimately it has to come back to that area because that's the area that needs the capacity,” he said.

'Tone deaf' TEP

City Councilman Steve Kozachik, whose Ward 3 includes the historic Sam Hughes neighborhood bordering North Campbell, said TEP has been “tone deaf” to the community’s pleas so far and its new proposal extending the study area may be a misguided effort to sidestep city ordinances.

“They are signaling to the community that they still don’t hear that the community says we want these underground, and so we're going to select a corridor that's not a scenic or gateway corridor, and take our best shot with the Corporation Commission, that's the way I'm reading the tea leaves.”

Kozachik said the company should have already started working with the city on segments of the line that might qualify for a process to get “special exception” land-use permits to exempt certain segments from the gateway and scenic corridor ordinances.

Last year the city council, with input from TEP, adopted amendments to its Uniform Development Code to allow for consideration of special exceptions for high-voltage transmission lines in industrial areas, for example.

“I would prefer that they all work through our special exception process and look for areas where they have a good opportunity for going above ground, and do the undergrounding, and at least in that way, show the community that ‘we're listening, we're responsive,’” Kozachik said. “There are areas along that Campbell-Kino gateway corridor that would be totally appropriate to go above ground, for instance, over the overpass by the Union Pacific Railroad tracks, why would we tell them to go under the railroad tracks?”

Kozachik noted that the city Board of Adjustment last week unanimously rejected TEP's challenge to a 2021 ruling by a city zoning administrator that lines serving the proposed new UA substation are subject to the underground line requirement applying to city gateway corridors.

Legal wrangling

During the Oct. 25 Board of Adjustment meeting, a lawyer representing TEP contended that the zoning officer’s decision should be overturned under the legal doctrine of “equitable estoppel,” because the city had allowed overhead transmission lines to be built along other gateway and scenic corridors, including Speedway and Kolb; Speedway; Valencia, Silverbell and Houghton roads.

Jeffrey Gross, a Scottsdale-based attorney, also said two city development officials had indicated in email exchanges that there were no special requirements for the substation, and the ordinances intended to govern new facilities should not apply because the project is an “upgrade.”

Gross cited the Corporation Commission’s recent rule amendment to the line-siting rules, stating that the commission has no jurisdiction over undergrounding of transmission lines but that utilities generally avoid undergrounding to avoid higher costs unless it is necessary for safety or reliability.

He also said the city was preempted by state laws restricting cities from adopting laws that conflict with state law or regulating certain utilities.

But Roi Lusk, an assistant city attorney, told the board the state laws Gross cited also preserve the ability to regulate its rights-of-way and that TEP shouldn’t have relied simply on informal communications with city staffers before moving ahead to acquire a land parcel for the substation.

TEP's Barrios said the company is disappointed by the Board of Adjustment's decision and continues to disagree with the zoning administrator’s ruling.

"We continue to consider our options. Although we have no proposed routes at this time, we are working to identify areas that are most compatible with these new, urgently needed transmission facilities," Barrios said, adding that the Kino Parkway/Campbell corridor remains under consideration.

'Uglifying' lines

During public comment, several Tucson residents reiterated their vehement opposition to the overhead line project.

Stacey Plassmann, president of the Rincon Heights Neighborhood Association, said overhead transmission lines would ruin many historic neighborhoods, which she called “precious treasures for the entire community of Tucson."

“The many and or huge structures proposed to hold the new transmission lines would uglify and damage the aesthetics of Tucson’s beloved historic neighborhoods, as well as significantly lowering property values in the same neighborhoods — that cannot be considered an upgrade. The lines to deliver higher voltage can go underground and should go underground.”

Nancy DeFeo, a member of the Sam Hughes Neighborhood board, said the UA’s involvement in the project is the “elephant in the room.”

In 2019, the UA signed an agreement to purchase 100% renewable power from TEP supplied by a major solar and storage project south of the city and a New Mexico wind farm owned by the utility.

“In fact this whole project is currently predicated on bringing massive amounts of solar and wind energy from south of us into the university in a wonderful sweetheart deal with them,” DeFeo said, adding that the new line is part of significant new development around the UA.

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