TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — As cars drove past her, Betsy Larson put up a sign on the side of the rode promoting underground power lines. She’s against TEP’s proposed plan that would have put overhead power lines at Broadway and Euclid, Oracle and Grant, and 36th and Kino.
The power lines would have been a part of TEP’s Midtown Reliability Project.
"The visual is important. We are a community centered around tourism,” Larson said.
She’s the president of the West University Neighborhood Association and the power lines would have been in her neighborhood.
"TEP has not been held accountable for the way they developed their infrastructure and we deserve better,” she said.
TEP said the power lines would have been able to upgrade infrastructure and triple the electric capacity. They applied for the exception because the City named the areas they wanted to put the power lines in protected zoned areas.
The zoning examiner recently said no because it wouldn’t have given the area a good appearance.
"We are disappointed especially because City of Tucson staff recommended approval of our applications,” Joe Barrios, TEP’s spokesman said.
However, the City of Tucson’s Planning and Development Services said the zoning examiner said they require underground cabling where possible. TEP says they're still looking at their options after the zoning examiner's decisions.
"Underground installation is significantly more, costs significantly more than the overhead installation that we've planned,” Barrios said.
However, Larson feels like places in the Phoenix metro area that have underground power lines could be an example for Tucson. She said they would be beneficial during strong weather events.
"Stronger storms, hotter, drier summers, these are all things that we really need to be thinking about in the future,” Larson said.
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Andrew Christiansen is a reporter for KGUN 9. Before joining the team, Andrew reported in Corpus Christi, Texas for KRIS6 News, Action 10 News and guest reported in Spanish for Telemundo Corpus Christi. Share your story ideas with Andrew by emailing andrew.christiansen@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook, or Twitter.
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