Beliefs and Goals of the underground coalition
Beliefs of the Underground Coalition The following is to clarify the position of the members of the Coalition as it relates to the proposed TEP 138kV poles line siting from Kino to DeMoss-Petrie project.
1. Tucsonans have the right to expect consistent access to electricity.
2. Overhead power lines have significant negative effects on our community.
3. No residential areas, including their borders, are suitable for high voltage power lines of the type proposed in the Kino to DMP project.
4. Property value reduction caused by overhead lines amount to approximately $5-to-$10 million per mile, a conservative amount based on estimates in TEP-cited studies. Property owners should not be placed in a position of having to pay higher rates in order to avoid damage a TEP project does to the value of their property.
5. The City of Tucson invested $100M+ to build Kino Parkway as a scenic gateway to our city, promoting economic growth and investment. The city needs to protect its investment.
6. The reduction in property taxes due to the loss of property values for Pima County would be conservatively $500k per year.
7. Undergrounding the lines is technically feasible, affordable, and can be done as demonstrated in municipalities/cities across the country. TEP absorbs costs of this magnitude routinely for community benefit.
8. The issue of over heading large 138kV lines, if approved, could eventually affect any neighborhood in Tucson, now and in the future, thus neighborhoods must now cooperatively work together on this issue.
Goals of the Underground Coalition
Members/Supporters of the Underground Coalition: Catalina Vista, Feldman’s, Iron Horse, Jefferson Park, Mountain/1st, Pie Allen, Rincon Heights, Sam Hughes, Samos, Sugar Hill, and West University, the Historic Fourth Avenue Coalition, and the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation.
1. Tucsonans have the right to expect consistent access to electricity.
2. Overhead power lines have significant negative effects on our community.
3. No residential areas, including their borders, are suitable for high voltage power lines of the type proposed in the Kino to DMP project.
4. Property value reduction caused by overhead lines amount to approximately $5-to-$10 million per mile, a conservative amount based on estimates in TEP-cited studies. Property owners should not be placed in a position of having to pay higher rates in order to avoid damage a TEP project does to the value of their property.
5. The City of Tucson invested $100M+ to build Kino Parkway as a scenic gateway to our city, promoting economic growth and investment. The city needs to protect its investment.
6. The reduction in property taxes due to the loss of property values for Pima County would be conservatively $500k per year.
7. Undergrounding the lines is technically feasible, affordable, and can be done as demonstrated in municipalities/cities across the country. TEP absorbs costs of this magnitude routinely for community benefit.
8. The issue of over heading large 138kV lines, if approved, could eventually affect any neighborhood in Tucson, now and in the future, thus neighborhoods must now cooperatively work together on this issue.
Goals of the Underground Coalition
- The lines should be constructed underground.
- Undergrounding the lines will protect property values of homes and businesses in the proposed area as well as protect the scenic gateway to Tucson, the Kino Parkway.
- TEP should either absorb the cost or seek a rate increase with the ACC. If it seeks a rate increase, then the cost of lines would be shared by all, not just by nearby property owners.
- Should TEP seek a rate increase, TEP’s assistance for low-income ratepayers should be raised to cover cost increase (possibly 50 cents per month, likely less).
- Collaborate with neighborhoods city-wide to ensure the undergrounding of power lines in residential areas, now and in the future.
Members/Supporters of the Underground Coalition: Catalina Vista, Feldman’s, Iron Horse, Jefferson Park, Mountain/1st, Pie Allen, Rincon Heights, Sam Hughes, Samos, Sugar Hill, and West University, the Historic Fourth Avenue Coalition, and the Tucson Historic Preservation Foundation.
Minutes of Meetings:
6/9/2021 Underground Coalition Meeting #2
Underground Coalition Mtg 2
Wednesday, June 9 ⋅ 6:30 – 8:30pm
Location:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85241465998?pwd=Wmh3bjNYck55L2R4K3pLaVlpbkRxQT09
Meeting ID: 852 4146 5998 Passcode: 909865
Underground Coalition Mtg 2
Wednesday, June 9 ⋅ 6:30 – 8:30pm
Location:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85241465998?pwd=Wmh3bjNYck55L2R4K3pLaVlpbkRxQT09
Meeting ID: 852 4146 5998 Passcode: 909865
5/10/2021 Minutes - Underground Coalition Meeting #1
5/13/2021 Zoning Examiner Denies TEP request for Substation
138Kv Vine Avenue Substation, A.K.a. UA Substation
Association Letter: Sent April 13, 2021. Printed here to inform our neighbors and community.
Sample letter for individual neighbors
Copy, paste, and edit to your specifications. You too can make your opinions known.
Association Letter: Sent March 22, 2021 Initial letter sent to the zoning examiner. Printed here to inform our neighbors and community.
UNDERGROUNDING PROPOSAL
The Underground Coalition is comprised of 11 Tucson neighborhoods, Historic Preservation Society, and 4th Avenue Historic District. The proposal below was researched by the listed authors and presented to TEP as an alternative to overhead 138Kv poles. As of January 2021, TEP has not responded and continues with the three options, two of which bisect Jefferson Park. No other neighborhood has been projected for poles through the neighborhood.
WHY TEP SHOULD NOT IMPACT ANY HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOOD
1 – TEP has other options along major thorough-fares (or underground?)
• Neighborhood streets are generally narrower and designed to accommodate slow car, pedestrian and bike flow within the neighborhood.
• Right -of -ways are not large enough. Poles would be too close to residences.
• Visual blight – non-conforming with the intent of historic districts.
2 – TEP itself has designates Historic Neighborhoods as “sensitive receptors”
“sensitive receptors,” are factors which would have impact on placement, and would be taken into consideration. They include aspects, such as historic status, impact on the affected area, such as schools, nursing homes, hospitals and the like.
WHY JEFFERSON PARK IS ESPECIALLY IMPACTED
1– Jefferson Park already bears the burden of an ENLARGED substation at its southern border-complete with SF-6 gas, a greenhouse gas, which has been discontinued in CA and Europe.
2- JP is not only an Historic District but also a Neighborhood Preservations Zone, one of two in the city. It has special provisions to protect the integrity of the Historic District.
3 – Vine or Park BISECT the neighborhood
JP includes three churches, a long term care nursing home and rehab facility, The International School of Tucson, which serves students from preschool through eighth grades, and Banner Hospital, which is located on our southern border.
These kinds of poles should not be sited through any residential neighborhood. Jefferson Park happens to meet several of the "sensitive receptor" criteria which makes the Vine or Park options especially controversial. On an additional note, several neighbors believe that the EMFs from the larger Kv Poles are dangerous and they are not convinced otherwise by the current arguments.
1 – TEP has other options along major thorough-fares (or underground?)
• Neighborhood streets are generally narrower and designed to accommodate slow car, pedestrian and bike flow within the neighborhood.
• Right -of -ways are not large enough. Poles would be too close to residences.
• Visual blight – non-conforming with the intent of historic districts.
2 – TEP itself has designates Historic Neighborhoods as “sensitive receptors”
“sensitive receptors,” are factors which would have impact on placement, and would be taken into consideration. They include aspects, such as historic status, impact on the affected area, such as schools, nursing homes, hospitals and the like.
WHY JEFFERSON PARK IS ESPECIALLY IMPACTED
1– Jefferson Park already bears the burden of an ENLARGED substation at its southern border-complete with SF-6 gas, a greenhouse gas, which has been discontinued in CA and Europe.
2- JP is not only an Historic District but also a Neighborhood Preservations Zone, one of two in the city. It has special provisions to protect the integrity of the Historic District.
3 – Vine or Park BISECT the neighborhood
- and are narrow residential streets heavily traveled by bikers to and
- and have especially narrow right of ways placing poles too close to residences
- and Vine is a watershed management area for neighborhood with stormwater basins along right-of-ways to address flooding issues.
JP includes three churches, a long term care nursing home and rehab facility, The International School of Tucson, which serves students from preschool through eighth grades, and Banner Hospital, which is located on our southern border.
These kinds of poles should not be sited through any residential neighborhood. Jefferson Park happens to meet several of the "sensitive receptor" criteria which makes the Vine or Park options especially controversial. On an additional note, several neighbors believe that the EMFs from the larger Kv Poles are dangerous and they are not convinced otherwise by the current arguments.
TUCSON ELECTRIC PROJECT AND JEFFERSON PARK
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Jefferson Park Neighborhood Association has consistently, with other historic neighborhoods , rejected the placement of 75-100 ft 138Kv electric poles in historic neighborhoods.
TEP lists historic neighborhoods, school, hospitals as sensitive areas, yet continues to suggest the possibility of using Park or Vine south to north from the Banner northwest corner. Read the newsletters below. |
Jefferson Park Neighborhood continues to advocate regarding the pathway of the proposed 138Kv poles and the creation of a 138Kv substation on the southern border of the neighborhood on Vine Avenue. We ask for no poles through this Historic neighborhood---2 of the 3 pathways proposed by TEP bisect the neighborhood. We raise concerns about the SF6 gas used in the substation and its siting next to residential areas and Banner hospital. Further we support the Underground Coalition which asks for undergrounding of the poles.