Powerless? 2020 power line project blindsides Gadsden, Jefferson and Leon county residents

WACISSA — The yesterday, today and tomorrow bush in Carole McMullen’s front yard along Tram Road is in full bloom with fragrant little lavender blossoms. A spring breeze blows through the trees, the sound only interrupted by the periodic whizzing by of a pick-up truck. 

The strip of grass between the sparsely traveled road and her fence is dotted with little white signs: “Say no to transmission lines."

A year or so from now, less than 10 feet away from her front door, a nine-story-tall concrete pole could be driven into the sandy soil. Every 500 feet or so, there’d be another one. In both directions, 90 miles each way.

The serene sounds surrounding McMullen’s house would be replaced by the hum of 161 kilovolt lines carrying power over her head from a Florida Power and Light substation near Lake City to a Gulf Power substation west of Tallahassee.

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McMullen’s is one of hundreds of houses that sit in the proposed 176-mile path of high-power electric transmission lines planned to run through – but not to – seven rural north Florida counties, including Gadsden, Jefferson and Leon.

Construction on the $350 to $380 million project by NextEra Energy, which acquired Gulf Power in January and owns FPL, is slated to begin in early 2020. The siting of the lines did not require approval by Florida Public Service Commission because the planned voltage falls below regulatory limits.

Local governments have little jurisdiction over private utility transmission lines built by private utility companies, which have the power to condemn and take land if they can prove a public purpose.  

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McMullen and other shocked and dismayed area property owners never had a chance to object to what they say will ruin their property values and most importantly their quality of life. They didn’t know about the project until February, when power company contractors came to their doors looking to buy their land.

What they’ve learned since then is there’s likely nothing they can do now to stop it.

“We’d planned to live here forever. Country living. You want to move out in the country and we did. Now they’re going to put these monstrosities in,” said McMullen, who moved to the area about five years ago for the peace of living miles away from the nearest town.

“They had this in the works for a long time,” she said. “It’s not right.”

'Investment' may impact almost 850 properties

Gulf Power’s website calls the new transmission line an “investment to enhance electric reliability and resiliency and properly plan for anticipated growth in North Florida.” Company spokesman Gordon Paulus said the final route for the line has not been set.

But maps submitted to the state Division of Historical Resources as part of a required pre-construction cultural survey indicate its general corridor.

The line would connect Florida Power’s Raven Substation in Columbia County to Gulf Power’s Sinai Cemetery Substation in Jackson County. Beyond meeting future energy needs, company officials say the project is needed to strengthen the power grid to reduce outages during major storms and hurricanes.  

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The line is envisioned going north from the substation near Lake City to Interstate 10. It would run west to Waukeena Highway in Jefferson County then to Tram Road in Wacissa and into Leon County. It would go south around Tallahassee along Capital Circle Southwest to the Arvah B. Hopkins Generating Station on Geddie Road. The proposed line then would cut through the Apalachicola National Forest north to Midway and again to I-10 on to Jackson County.

Paulus maintained the route is still being finalized but consideration was being given to paths already in place. He reiterated the project’s goal of utility resiliency and said the company has tried to communicate with impacted residents.

“To minimize the impact to property owners, much of the proposed route is along existing roads, highways and existing transmission line rights-of-way,” he wrote in an email.

“Projected outreach efforts began in January shortly after NextEra Energy Inc. purchased Gulf Power,” he continued. “We have met with several residents and will continue to meet with others and gather feedback as the project progresses.”

Documents obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat show that plans to “accelerate surveying and mapping services” for the project were already underway in December.

A Dec. 12 letter from land acquisition contractor Dewberry Engineers to FPL senior project manager Daniel Hronec described early preparations of easement sketches so negotiations with property owners could begin along 87 miles of the proposed project.

The letter from Dewberry’s Associate Vice President William Donley detailed the number of private land parcels, government land and street crossings in Madison, Jefferson and Leon counties. In those three counties, the letter indicated 440 private land parcels that may need to be acquired and 59 intersection crossings.

“It is our understanding that FPL desires to perform advanced acquisition of easements required for the construction of this transmission line with an expected service date of 2020,” Donley wrote. “Early preparations of sketch and legal descriptions for use in the negotiations with the respective parcel owners will be paramount in meeting this objective.”

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Tallahassee attorney Mike Tomkiewicz is working with homeowners from Suwanee County to Gadsden County who have been approached by power company representatives about purchasing easements. So far, about 40 have hired his firm, GrayRobinson, to help navigate the process and ensure their properties aren’t undervalued. About 850 properties overall could be impacted.

It has been difficult to get details from NextEra about the project, when it started or where the line is going, he said. Large-scale projects by private power companies are generally done behind closed doors, offering little chance for residents to have input or even know about them until they are underway.

“It’s not like DOT or Leon County or some other public entity where every stage of the project development is known,” Tomkiewicz said. “Power line projects are extremely different because they’re very secretive.”

Most people his firm has talked to about the project oppose it, but they likely will be stuck with it.

“They don’t want it. They want to stop it and that’s the most difficult spot,” Tomkiewicz said. “It’s unlikely they’ll be able to stop it.”

If enough homeowners along the proposed path decline to sell their property easements, NextEra can enact the state’s eminent domain statute.

The company could argue in court the line serves a public purpose, there is a legal necessity to acquire the property because homeowners are not willing to give it up and owners were offered full compensation for the land, Tomkeiwicz said.

Those three things satisfy requirements for eminent domain.

“If they say no, what they (NextEra) do is they have an appraiser come out then they’ll make a formal offer,” he said. “Once they do that, if they still say no, they’ll file a lawsuit and physically take the property using the power of eminent domain. They have the power of condemnation.”

'Like a stranger passing through wreaking havoc'

Josh Goodwin’s 100-year-old house near “downtown” Wacissa is right in the path of the project. The new transmission lines would be about 44 paces from his family’s shady front porch. He is among those contacted by Gulf Power representatives about giving up land.

“We don’t know how this actually going to affect folks,” Goodwin said. “To have this happen is like a punch in the gut. The shoe is dropping, and nobody was warned or has any influence on it.”

The Goodwins bought their house and moved from Tallahassee a year ago. They were charmed by the tiny town, which doesn’t have a single stoplight and sits just a mile from the headwaters of the Wacissa River.

The place has history. A small store once stood in their side yard as did a post office. Every time he digs a hole, Goodwin finds relics, an old horse shoe or turn-of-the-century glass bottle. The house is marked in red on a cultural survey conducted by archaeologists hired by NextEra Energy as being a physical barrier to construction. It’s also on the state historic registry.

Trace the 176-mile path of the proposed power line project that includes 7 rural counties

“We thought it’d be nice to be part of a smaller community where we could make an impact if we wanted to … raise a family,” he said. “We moved out here because it’s beautiful, for the natural environment and the history. Then come to find out we're going to be under high-voltage power lines. It’s what keeps you up at night.”

His wife Jill also is concerned about the potential to damage the nearby fragile ecosystem, which is distinguished by springs and spring-fed rivers.

"We're about a mile from (Wacissa) spring so digging 17 feet down (to put in poles), how does that even work with sinkholes?" she said. "You’re going right into the water table."

If not for a Facebook group formed after the power company’s surveying and land service contractors started knocking on doors, the Goodwins said they might still be in the dark. The couple has been among other concerned property owners from both Jefferson and Leon counties who’ve been meeting at Catherine DeLoney’s house.

DeLoney helped organize residents and was one of the first to alert local officials to the transmission line project. She’s worried about the speed of the project, NextEra’s lack of transparency and its seeming disinterest in local input.

“It would have been nice to have thought we could have had some input in this but that’s not the way Florida Power works,” DeLoney said. “Our concerns are valid. The sinkholes are reality. The destruction of the tree line is going to be a reality and our neighbors across the street are going to lose their buffer.”

DeLoney has twice written Gov. Ron DeSantis hoping to see the project paused until more input can be gathered. 

“Please don’t let them turn this area from a beautiful part of natural Florida into an ugly industrial roadway,” she wrote. "These lines will ruin what the state has worked to preserve for green space."

She was referred to the Department of Environmental Protection and told DeSantis' office had no authority over the project.

Adding insult to injury, those with the lines towering overhead won’t get a kilowatt of power from them, said Ray Brown, a retiree who has lived in eastern Leon County for the past 17 years.

He too learned of the project back in February when a power company representative showed up at his door, only telling him they were considering the project. He stands to lose the wooded boundary between his property and Tram Road. The canopy road he loves driving on to and from town would become “an eyesore.”

“I hate to have to sit on my porch and have to look at these concrete poles in my front yard,” said Brown. “I could understand if it was a necessity to have a power source, but we’ve already got a power source here in Leon County.

“This is like a stranger passing through wreaking havoc. Now they come in like a strong hand and say we’re going to take what you have because we want it. That’s not right.”

When asked to respond to the concerns of residents, Gulf Power's Paulus wrote in an email:

"We are still early in the process and we have performed extensive outreach to stakeholders along the proposed route. As the project moves forward, we will continue to keep communities informed as we work to complete the project safely and respectfully."

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter

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