Lexington, KY - I was struck last year when I saw the super-sized electric utility transmission structures on Cooper Drive near the UK Hospital. One pole is a mass of metal worthy of a nuclear power plant and is encircled by enormous tubes rising from the ground like something from "War of the Worlds." I became very concerned, though, when I realized that large transmission towers are sprouting up all around Lexington. Just take a look at the corner of Rose Street and Euclid Avenue, or drive out Winchester Road to Hamburg.
I know that we need high-voltage electrical lines in the middle of Lexington. We live in a modern world where electricity is one of our most fundamental basic services. The new University of Kentucky Hospital would not have been possible without the new transmission lines that surround it. And UK's new hospital will have an enormous economic impact on Lexington, with a larger aggregate payroll than even the Toyota manufacturing plant in Georgetown.
Overhead transmission lines deservedly received attention from the Urban County Council this past year. The council approved a new ordinance requiring electrical distribution lines to be placed underground in new neighborhood developments. And the South Limestone streetscape project buried utility lines from UK's campus all the way to downtown.
The council also discussed overhead utility lines in connection with the Newtown Pike extension project. From the ever increasing calls for underground utilities, including some grumbling by me and a very effective council presentation by Lexington architects Clive Pohl and Graham Pohl, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet scrounged together funds needed to bury transmission lines on Newtown Pike.
So why don't we just require that transmission lines be buried on all major corridors? The answer is that underground high-voltage transmission lines are exceptionally expensive. According to Kentucky Utilities, the cost to bury a 69-kilovolt line like the ones on Euclid Avenue is about $5 million per mile.
The choices are not easy. If we do nothing, the Horse Capital of the World will look more industrial and less beautiful. Given Lexington's potential for increasing our revenues from tourism, this might impact our quality of life and the marketability of Lexington as a tourist destination.
But there may also not be support for spending large sums to bury utility transmission lines. Lexington is already faced with financial challenges from the EPA Consent Decree and from about $330 million in public safety pension obligations. And do we really value underground power lines more than paving our roads or housing our homeless?
Another option is to prohibit large utility transmission lines along major streets and corridors in favor of less visible routes. This would involve some expense to purchase utility easements along train tracks, in folk's backyards and through commercial land.
To work toward some community consensus, the Urban County Council approved a request this past June to refer the issue of large electrical transmission towers along Lexington's corridors to the Urban County Council's Services Committee. This will be a very difficult problem to solve, but our quality of life, the beauty of our city, and the vigor of our tourism industry all require that we find the best solution possible.