With the deadline for Washington’s all-mail election having (finally!) arrived, there is another deadline this week residents around E Denny and 14th Ave are concerned about.
Wednesday, November 7th is the last day for public comment on Seattle City Light’s proposed alternative route for a 115 kilovolt transmission line to run up Denny and across Capitol Hill on 14th Ave as part of the proposed Denny Substation project. The city has been adamant in saying that downtown, underground routes for the line are the preferred route but also told CHS that the faster, cheaper alternative is to build the 100-foot towers the line requires across Capitol Hill and the Central District to connect the planned new station to another substation to the south.
Comments on the proposal should be directed to [email protected] by Wednesday. The City Light page on the project is here.
Some neighbors living along the route tell CHS they are concerned that more people haven’t provided comments — or even know about the proposal. CHS is the only media outlet in the city to have covered the plan. One reader told CHS that staff from a City Council member’s office that he contacted last week told him his call was the first they had received. That reader also said one of his neighbors told him he, too, was surprised to learn about the proposal. We don’t know if that neighbor learned about the plan from CHS — but we wish Representative Jamie Pedersen good luck in today’s election.
Most overhead transmission towers are not that visible, but the one being installed on Fairview Avenue (South Lake Union) which connects underground and overhead wires, is truly massive and intrusive.
Also consider contacting the Seattle City Council to voice opposition to the Capitol Hill option. Here is the contact page for the City Council:
http://www.seattle.gov/council/councilcontact.htm
Just a note … the tower pictured would be the worst case example, as Andrew mentions, it includes the transition from overhead to underground … there’s a lot of junk on the side of the tower that would not be on the typical tower. That’s still a lot of tower.
I just came back from a trip to Las Vegas. Driving along the Southern end of the Strip, I saw a huge line of these towers. They’re horrible! Huge, ugly and unnecessary: underground these utilities! Safer for everyone and the smarter, long-term solution. We really don’t want these anywhere in Seattle if we can avoid them.
I just realized that this path will run it right directly in front of the Bullitt Center. I think that it would be terribly embarassing to have the greenest building in Seattle having a 100 foot metal tower directly in front
It’s not until you click on the transmission page that you are shown the third “Aerial” option, and with no indication of how tall or intrusive in the pedestrian landscape those “aerial towers” may be.
I know when I first read the project pages, I assumed they meant “regular power poles”, and not super-tall towers.
That’s just plain stupid!