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StumbleHenderson rejects proposed NV Energy project
Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2009 | 1:09 a.m.
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NV Energy’s request to build a transmission line through three Henderson neighborhoods met a brick wall in the Henderson City Council on Tuesday night.
After taking more than two hours of testimony from NV Energy and concerned neighbors, who filled the council chambers and spoke against the proposal with voices that frequently rippled with emotion, the Council unanimously denied the utility’s application.
NV Energy had asked to upgrade an existing three-wire, 69 kilovolt line to a 20-wire, 230-kiloviolt line to help meet projected energy needs for the Las Vegas Valley.
Though the existing line predates any of the communities it traverses – Section 4, Tuscany and Weston Hills – residents of those communities fiercely fought against the transmission line, saying the 135-foot poles and heavier lines posed health, safety and visual impacts they weren’t willing to accept in the name of progress.
NV Energy Government Affairs Executive Dave Rigdon told the council that Henderson and the surrounding area will need the line by 2015, and the proposed route represented the best way to get it to them, because NV Energy already owns the necessary easements.
The company examined alternative routes at the request of the city but dismissed them because of their additional cost — between $5 million and $19 million above the project’s estimated $27 million price tag — or impact on other neighborhoods where there isn’t already an impact.
“This route represents the best overall solution to the community as a whole,” Rigdon said. “It has the lowest cost, fewest pole structures and fewest circuit miles of transmission corridor.”
After the council’s vote, Rigdon acknowledged that it was a difficult issue.
“I think both sides made great presentations, as the mayor said,” he said. “The council had a difficult decision to make and it made it.”
Rigdon said NV Energy will consider its options, which includes a second look at the alternative routes.
Residents raised a number of issues to fight the project, from health concerns about electromagnetic radiation to property values to simple aesthetics.
“The bottom line is that these are residential communities, where we raise our children and our grandchildren,” Section 4 resident John Blevins said. “(The transmission line) is not a residential corridor. It’s an industrial corridor that belongs out in the middle of nowhere.”
Other residents got creative in their arguments. Two made scale models to show the size difference between the existing line and the proposed line, while another hinted that it would be in the council members’ own political interest to deny the request.
“Just keep us in mind,” Section 4 resident Nancy Myers said. “We will keep you in mind.”
Ultimately, council members said they approached the request from a quality of life standpoint.
Councilman Steve Kirk said he was willing to concede the need for the lines but said NV Energy’s proposal was unacceptable.
“(The lines) don’t need to go on this alignment,” he said. “That’s my message to you tonight. Find an alternate route that doesn’t go through a neighborhood, because in Henderson, this is a quality of life issue.”
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No one is screaming NIMBY? You all do that when the subject of the Searchlight wind project comes up which no locals want. If you can do it in Searchlight, why not Henderson?
I guess you are starting to understand. Took you some time...
All the residents of Tuscany should hold a Jim Rhodes Appreciation Day. After all, the residents' children are playing atop toxic waste, and at least now they won't get cancer from high power lines. And hey, maybe he'll bring wife Glynda along with her store bought bumpers.
Nimbyotlmtwa. Not in my backyard, leave my toxic waste alone.
bdover, your snide comments about Tuscany need to stop. We have enough problems as it is, including the electric line and over 80 foreclosures. And there has been no evidence that the contaminated groundwater is coming to the surface. So please go back in your hole. And stop picking on Glynda Rhodes. Is she wants to be an enhanced socialite, so be it. Her elderly husband can support her, even in bankruptcy.
Thank you City Council!
I heard the HOA fees in Tuscany are $1,200.00 per month.
I can't THANK YOU ENOUGH! for being on our (Residents) side on NV-Electric line issue in our neigborhood. When I moved here 3 years ago in Tuscany Village, and start knowing the City of Henderson, I already feel at home from Redondo Beach, CA--I mean, We should keep the "Quality of Life" that all Tuscany Residents have tried to keep here, just come see us again soon. Again, Thanks a trillion!
We also want to appreciate Ms. Evelyn Daumayer- our TBVSC President and her husband for tirelessly represented us all the way to all meetings with the City Council when we cannot attend due to our very demanding job. Evelyn you're the best we ever have in Tuscany Village. You're simply the best!