Cedar Park Officials To Have Voice In Controversial Transmission Lines Project

CEDAR PARK, TX -- City Council members recently voted to intervene in a plan by a utility to build transmission lines through the area, according to a published report.

Cedar Park Council City members voted to thrust themselves into the debate to exert some measure of influence on the plans by Lower Colorado River Authority officials to build a 138-kilovolt line from two substations in Round Rock and Leander, as the HIll Country News reported.

The aim of the project is to enhance service in Williamson County. But officials at impacted cities have long been wringing their hands over the potential blight upon the landscape that could result from the project.

The LCRA has identified 31 possible routes for the work, submitting the draft of the plans to regulators at the Public Utilities Commission. One of the preferred routes for the lines runs along FM 1431 and Sam Bass Road.

Before voting on its official intervenor role, city officials passed a resolution recommending the transmission line be installed along FM 1431, the newspaper reported. Another alternative would be along Arterial H, a short stretch of roadway in Mayfield Ranch.

“The city recognizes the need for and benefits of the transmission line program, and it also recognizes that a number of the alternative alignments and substation locations will have a significant negative impact on the community, the economic development of the city and its extraterritorial jurisdiction and the continued growth of its tax base,” the newspaper cited the official document as partially reading.

Read the full story at Hill Country News >>