PPL doesn’t have easements for Sinking Spring power line

by Steve Reinbrecht

PPL Electric Utilities does not have the easements it needs to run a 69-kilowatt power line through the middle of Sinking Spring, a move that borough leaders say would scramble their plans for redevelopment. An easement is an agreement with an owner to use land for a certain purpose, such as a utility line or access.

The company is still in talks with landowners – including a farmer, the owner of the Village Greens Golf Course, and the borough -- about getting easement rights, PPL spokesman Joe Nixon said Friday.

In a letter to Sinking Spring borough dated Sept. 9, Jessica Long, PPL regional affairs director, said the company has made a final decision on the route. Based in Allentown, the company has about 10 million customers and saw $7.7 billion in revenues last year.

If negotiations fail and the company decides to use eminent domain to force a sale of the easement, it would have to apply to the state Public Utility Commission. 

Similar cases have had different outcomes this year.

In April, a Northumberland County judge’s ruling allowed PPL to pursue eminent domain for a 12-mile, 69-kilovolt power line near Meiserville.

The judge denied preliminary objections filed by landowners, according to the Daily Item of Danville.

In 2013, another judge had ruled in favor of landowners contesting the project. The Public Utility Commission overruled that and moved to allow PPL to exercise eminent domain to force the property sales. Commonwealth Court upheld that decision in 2014.

On the other hand, PPL canceled plans to build a transmission line in Cumberland County, the Central Penn Business Journal reported in March.

Just like the plan in Sinking Spring, that plan, calling for a 69-kilovolt line, generated controversy among landowners and neighbors, the Journal said.

The company said the move reflected "a new perspective" on the power system's needs, according to the Journal.  In a letter, PPL wrote that it had cancelled that project "as the result of continued evaluation of current and future electric grid needs in the Cumberland County region.”

Plans are tentative for when work would start on the Sinking Spring line, Nixon said. They call for four months of construction, starting at the end of 2017, Nixon said.

Sinking Spring officials say it will ruin their downtown renovation plans, which already has attracted millions of dollars. The line would have a 100-foot-wide [50 feet on each side]. The electric company has vowed it will not interfere with the borough’s plans to relocate streets, Nixon said. It is still talking with borough officials about exactly where to place poles, he said.

PennDOT, the state, Berks County and Sinking Spring have together spent more than $5.3 million over 8.5 years on the project. The borough's plans call for 450,000 square feet of commercial, office, retail and food operations, about 100 housing units and $60 million in private investment.

Home owners along the proposed line have said in meetings that they are worried about the line’s effect on their property values.

PPL hosted a public meeting about the plan Thursday night.

“It was a great turnout,” Nixon said, adding that 165 people had signed in.

The borough’s two representatives in Harrisburg – state Rep. Jim Cox and state Sen. David Argall – have opposed PPL’s plan.

In a June 29 letter, the lawmakers wrote:

“Locating a high voltage power line in the center of an existing community makes no sense to us … . We must insist that PPL reject this proposed plan.

“Our ongoing efforts to revitalize the downtown of this growing community will be endangered if this proposed transmission line is built. We are prepared to seek a legislative solution to this problem, if it becomes necessary.”

On Friday, a woman who answered the phone in Cox’s office referred questions to Argall’s office. A woman in the senator’s office said a representative had been at the meeting, but she didn’t call me back.

I wanted to ask the lawmakers if this is a done-deal or if they have a way to sway the utility without costing the borough extensive legal bills.