Neighbors Object to Development Below Power Lines

There is high tension over what’s starting to happen under high-tension wires around Los Angeles.

Power companies for the first time are encouraging construction of retail stores and industrial shops within electric transmission line corridors that generally have been off-limits to all but landscape nurseries.

And that is angering residents who fear their neighborhoods will be disrupted if convenience marts, fast-food restaurants and auto repair garages are developed in what until now have been open-space buffer zones around 100-foot high-voltage towers.

“I have a nice home. I don’t want a strip mall built behind me,” said Angela Smythe, who lives next to a Southern California Edison Co. tower corridor in La Canada Flintridge that is slated for development.

Edison Co. officials say that financial pressures from deregulation of the electric power industry have forced them to begin leasing the 300-foot-wide corridors throughout their service area to generate revenue. The first of such deals recently opened, a self-storage warehouse facility in Rosemead.

The other main electricity supplier in the region, the city of Los Angeles’ Department of Water and Power, says that mounting debt is forcing it to do the same thing in portions of its tower corridors.

The privately run Edison Co. is marketing its land through its own real estate department. Until now, only agricultural or horticultural businesses have been given permission to use space beneath the wires.

“However, after reviewing other potential uses of these properties, we found that many commercial and industrial purposes are compatible with our operating facilities,” the Edison Co. said in an announcement. “We are expanding into additional commercial uses, such as restaurants, golf driving ranges, auto services and other retail developments.”

DWP leaders say that they too have rented land below transmission lines to growers in the past. Now, they have engaged a major Los Angeles commercial realty firm to market such property and negotiations are underway with several potential developers.

“We are looking at uses that before we were not interested in. Our people now will look at anything,” said Eric Tharp, the DWP’s assistant director of government legislative and public affairs.

The Edison Co. and the DWP require potential developers to secure proper zoning and building permits for any construction. In addition, Edison leases must be reviewed by the state Public Utilities Commission; DWP leases must be approved by the department’s governing board and the Los Angeles City Council.

Zoning hearings give neighbors a chance to complain about any project they say is incompatible.

But homeowners in La Canada Flintridge are not waiting for hearings to express outrage over Edison’s marketing of a 1 1/2-acre Foothill Boulevard tower corridor.

Bordered on two sides by houses, the site is zoned as open space. Residents say that they were jolted last year when City Council members were advised that Edison considered the site “suitable for a drive-through coffee hut.” That prompted a neighborhood petition that urged the tower land be retained as open space.

Edison later dropped the drive-through idea but not the plan to build beneath the wires. It promised that an “appropriate buffer and landscaping” would be installed near homes to help hide any future businesses and parking lots.

Although Edison officials say that they are working with a potential developer, no building request or rezoning application has yet been filed, said La Canada Flintridge City Manager Jerry Fulwood.

Neighbors Question Aesthetics, Safety

Opponents plan to raise aesthetic and safety issues when the development request is finally publicly aired.

“Develop a commercial strip between two residential areas like this? I’ve never seen anything like that acceptable anywhere,” said resident David Smythe, a lawyer and the husband of Angela Smythe.

“And is it safe to have commercial development under those wires? That’s the $64 question. Even we can sometimes hear the wires making humming sounds.”

The possible health effects of electromagnetic fields generated by power lines have been debated for years. Some scientific studies have suggested that excessive exposure to high levels can cause cancer and Alzheimer’s disease.

But just last week it was revealed that a scientist whose 1992 study linked high-voltage lines to cancer was found to have faked some of his data, according to government research officials. Although he left his research job, cellular biologist Robert J. Leburdy said his findings “stand as published.”

A consumer guide published by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Department of Energy acknowledges the differing opinions but offers no conclusions and sets no safety standards for electromagnetic fields.

However, that consumer guide indicates that the typical American home has a background electromagnetic field level of about 0.9 mG (for milligauss, a unit of magnetic field measurement). It also suggests that the electromagnetic field directly beneath power lines like those in La Canada Flintridge could average 57.5 mG.

The Smythes say electromagnetic field measurements taken in their backyard average about 25.5 mG. And some rooms in their house in one test done by an engineer measured more than 10 mG.

‘There Really Are No Risks’

Power company officials say they would not open their high-voltage corridors to commercial use if they believed there was a health hazard.

“It’s safe,” said David Armes, Edison’s manager of real estate sales and revenue. “There really are no risks.”

Armes said Edison will require developers to provide access to the towers for utility repair crews and will not allow construction directly beneath the high-voltage wires. As an additional safety procedure, no fuel storage will be allowed in the corridors.

At the newly opened Everest Self Storage lot in Rosemead, wide driveways have room for Edison trucks and buildings are positioned so they are not directly under high-voltage lines.

In the Everest office, a desktop radio and a computer operate perfectly, with no buzzing sounds or jiggling screen despite the proximity to the wires.

“Nobody asks about the wires,” said Jose Gutirrez, an assistant manager for the 600-space storage facility, gesturing to the overhead lines outside the building.

Electric industry officials say safety problems should not be an issue with utilizing land beneath high-tension lines.

“As long as you don’t touch the wire, it’s OK,” said Ken Hall, an official with the Washington-based Edison Electric Institute, a national trade association for investor-owned utilities.

Hall said it is not common to see buildings beneath high-voltage wires across the nation. But he indicated that tower corridors are routinely used for other purposes, such as farms and hiking trails.