Company will look for a new site
Marfa
Marfans packing City Hall Monday night leapt to their feet, clapping and cheering, with one woman near tears, as they heard the final votes on the proposed AEP electric substation. “Ok, it’s 3-2. The motion does not pass,” said Councilmember Mark Morrison, who was sitting in to run the meeting for Mayor Manny Baeza, who recused himself as an AEP employee.
Voting against a special use permit for the substation were Travis Acreman, Mark Cash and Raul Lara. Voting in favor of it were Morrison and Eddie Pallarez. Since the substation was an industrial project proposed for lots zoned residential, AEP needed the special use permit to move forward.
It was clear from past comments that Acreman and Lara were likely to vote against the substation. But Cash had never commented other than to say he was considering the proposal, and his “no” vote clearly surprised many of the people in the room.
“In our comprehensive plan, it is very clear that this area is meant to be designated for housing, for beautification, for nature trails,” Acreman said in a brief discussion before the vote. “If we are unwilling to consider those facts, then I don’t believe that we have done what is necessary to fully ground this decision in what we are obliged to follow.”
Countering him was Pallarez, a former AEP employee, who said the utility “has made all the right moves” for 80 years. “The substation that is currently there has been there for 80, 90 years,” he said. “I have not ever heard anybody complain about the aesthetics or the concern about an explosion. I never have. I’ve been here for 38 years.”
“The decision to vote against the proposed AEP substation was not made lightly,” Cash said in a statement Tuesday morning. “I fully recognize the importance and necessity of this infrastructure, and I remain supportive of efforts to bring a new substation to our community—however, not at the location that was proposed … Please know that my vote was not cast in favor of one group over another, but rather was based on careful consideration of what I believe to be in the best long-term interest of the City of Marfa.”
AEP’s proposal involved purchasing an approximately four-acre lot at the corner of Oak and Aparejo streets and erecting a new substation—eight times larger than the existing Oak Street station near Sal Si Puedes and triple the capacity, increasing from 5 MVA to 15 MVA (megavolt-amperes)—an estimated $7 million to $10 million endeavor. The increase in capacity is cited by the company as crucial to meeting both existing and future needs for Marfa’s electricity usage.
Acreman proposed creating a task force to work jointly with AEP in evaluating different sites. Fred Guerrero, AEP’s external affairs manager for the region, said the next steps for the utility are to look for another property. “We’re going to keep looking for a viable property until we find a location that is deemed a fit for a substation that we critically need,” he said Tuesday.
Some 20 Marfa residents spoke against the plan at Monday’s public hearing, with one person seeming to support the project with comments that rejected the importance of “aesthetics” for the substation.
Those objecting to the plan laid out many of the same arguments as in more than a year of hearings—the Planning & Zoning Commission twice recommending not to approve it, the bad precedent set by overruling residential zoning, the negative impacts on the adjoining neighborhoods and what they say is a failure for AEP to evaluate alternatives.
Several speakers added a new objection: Saturday’s election saw two substation opponents, Katherine Kowal and Emily Kolb, elected to replace two incumbent supporters—Morrison and Pallarez. Speakers argued that the lame duck council members shouldn’t be voting on an issue in which voters clearly stated their position to deny the substation.
