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
The Fort Worth City Council at its meeting on Tuesday, March 10 approved a request from Oncor Electric to upgrade and expand a substation in southeast Fort Worth, despite concerns from neighborhood residents.
Oncor went before the Fort Worth Zoning Commission in February to request that a 5.27 acre property located at 5621 Parker Henderson Road be rezoned from for two-family and light industrial use to light industrial use with a conditional use permit for an electrical substation with a site plan included.
The rezoning, Oncor representative Ashton Miller said on Tuesday, would allow the company to make improvements to the facility, adding two new transformers and a wall on the north side of the property to abate noise.
When Oncor went to the Zoning Commission in February, commissioners had questions about the utility company’s approach with local residents.
Oncor had approached District 11 council member Jeanette Martinez, who expressed approval, and sent required notices to residents who lived within 300 feet of the zoning change.
However, the company didn’t hold a meeting with residents, said Letitia Wilbourn, a member of the Echo Heights neighborhood association and the Echo Heights Stop Six Environmental Coalition. They received and answered a list of written answers to questions that residents had submitted.
After Wilbourn and several other residents spoke in opposition of the substation, Martinez asked Miller a few questions about the site. Miller said that the site is inspected once a month, and that Oncor has performed an environmental assessment on the site concluding that there are no hazards associated with it.
Members of the Zoning Commission and residents alike expressed a desire for Oncor to allow an outside entity to perform an independent environmental assessment.
The City Council voted seven to three to approve the rezoning.
Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Emily Holshouser is a local news reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.