Katy Ehrhart said the landscape around her home outside of Aledo is being ruined in Annetta, TX, Tuesday, March 28, 2017. Oncor has hired contractors to cut back trees from power lines but Ehrhart said they are going too far. “I just think it’s really disgusting,’ Ehrhart said. “They’re ruining the landscape out here.”
Max Faulkner
mfaulkner@star-telegram.com
Oncor Electric is requesting that the Fort Worth City Council approve the rezoning of a southeast Fort Worth lot containing a power substation that the utility company intends to expand and renovate, documents say.
According to documents filed with the city of Fort Worth, Oncor is requesting that the City Council approve a request to rezone 5.27 acres 5621 Parker Henderson Road.
The property is zoned for two-family and light industrial use. Oncor is requesting that the property be zoned for light industrial use with a conditional use permit for an electrical substation with a site plan included.
Half of the site is vacant.
At the Feb. 11 Zoning Commission meeting, representatives from Kimley-Horn and Oncor said improving the substation will lessen the demand on other Oncor substations in the area.
“Due to the growing demand in this area, Oncor needs to improve that site as well as expand it to the east,” explained Oncor engineer Rob Myers.
Oncor representative Ashton Miller explained that the substation powers the surrounding neighborhood.
Letitia Wilbourne, a Fort Worth resident and a member of the Echo Heights neighborhood association, spoke in opposition to the substation improvements at the Zoning Commission meeting, telling commissioners that substations have led to health problems in the neighborhood.
Miller said that research by Oncor has not found a connection between electromagnetic field readings and increased health problems in the neighborhood.
Miller also said that there would be increased traffic in the neighborhood during construction, but it would die down after construction was complete.
The proposal includes building a wall along the property’s northern boundary line, which Miller said will help mitigate noise. Renovations will include replacing the substation’s infrastructure with more modern equipment, which Miller said would be quieter.
Wilbourne said that Oncor had not met with neighborhood residents. Miller said they had spoken with District 11 council member Jeanette Martinez, who gave support to the project, but because Oncor was not required to meet with residents in order to get approval for the rezoning, the utility company had not sought a meeting.
Commissioner Tammy Pierce requested that Oncor consider meeting with neighborhoods for similiar projects even if it’s not requested, and that an independent study be completed on the health impact of Oncor substations.
The Zoning Commission voted to recommend that City Council approve the rezoning request at its meeting at 6 p.m. March 10 at Fort Worth City Hall, 100 Fort Worth Trail.
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Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Emily Holshouser is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.