North-end homeowners object to powerline route

By Collin Gallant on January 18, 2025.

@@CollinGallant

The owners of 23 properties in Medicine Hat’s northeast are filing objections to a proposed route of city power lines near the communities of Parkview, Terrace and Ranchlands.

The East Ring Reinforcement project would increase capacity on a loop joining the north and south ends of the electrical girds, but would require higher poles on lines that skirt along city residential streets on a route to the city limits and back into Southridge.

In October, the city’s distribution company applied to the Alberta Utilities Commission to build on a preferred route that would see lines upgraded on an existing power right of way that runs south from a substation on 11th Ave. N.E. to 20th Street then east across Parkview Drive, through the community of Parkview then across the South Saskatchewan River valley.

This week, the AUC announced that a hearing would be held in June to examine the arguments of the “Parkview Drive Homeowners.”

Its submission states concerns about the visual impacts, setbacks, disruption during construction, and negative impacts on property values as points of concern.

The line would be rebuilt to handle 138 kilovolts, twice the current capacity, but at that level height of the poles would be raised to 20 metres, about 64 feet.

An alternate route submitted along side would see a new line built along Parkview Drive to the same point near the Parkview community, but would add $1.4 million to the cost, according to the application submitted by the city’s electrical distribution department.

It states a total cost of building the entire line along preferred routes in the north and south would be $18.6 million. That would rise to $20 million if the northern alternate route is used along with other preferred routing, including a segment through Cypress County.

The project would be financed then paid off over time by adjusting the distribution charge on Medicine Hat utility customer bills.

Intervenors have until the end of March to submit written arguments, while the parties will then exchange information until May, before the June 2 hearing date.

12
-11