The Texas Public Utility Commission voted Thursday in Austin to approve Route 129 for the 36-mile, Salado-to-Hutto, 345-kilovolt transmission power line.
Route 129 will take the line through the golf course at the Mill Creek Inn and Golf Club, and will run across Hester Way and perpendicular to Walker Circle in the Mill Creek subdivision.
An alternate choice was Route 163 that runs through a rural community east of the Salado village limits.
Sandy Snyder, who worked to promote a petition drive against the power line, lives in the Mill Creek neighborhood. She expressed her disappointment Thursday at the decision.
“We’ll see it from our front porch and dining area,” she said. “We feel like it will decrease our property values.”
Ms. Snyder said she realizes, however, the line has to go somewhere.
“I guess this is where it’s going,” she said.
Perry Hadley, a spokesman for the commission, said commissioners based their decision on that of two administrative law judges who chose Route 129 after a hearing on May 5 in Austin at the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
In their opinion, Route 129 paralleled an existing 138-kilovolt line on the same route and had no significant organized opposition from owners compared to that of Route 163. They said Route 163 would cut across a subdivision in the early stages of development - the Creeks at Salado.
Hadley said some adjustments were made, however. The power line in Salado will be on monopoles - tall single uprights - as opposed to lattice frames that are more unsightly and obtrusive, Hadley said.
Commission Chairman Barry T. Smitherman wrote a memo Wednesday to commissioners Donna L. Nelson and Kenneth W. Anderson Jr. telling them that decisions on power transmission lines are among the most difficult responsibilities of the commission.
“Typically, the route that is chosen will always upset somebody,” he wrote. “Many parties advocate for a particular route to preserve their own land, but this raises the concerns of other parties who do not want the lines near their property.”
Commissioner Nelson recused herself from the vote because of possible conflicts of interest.
“She was a former employee in the governor’s office and knew some of the parties to the case,” Hadley said.
