Gov. Kelly celebrates power-pole transparency law: ‘This is what good government looks like’
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly visited a northeast Wichita neighborhood Thursday to promote a law she signed earlier this month requiring more transparency from utility companies before they run powerlines through urban areas.
“This is what good government looks like,” Kelly said. “It’s the public and private sector and private citizens working together to find solutions to problems.”
The law — formerly House Bill 2321 — was passed in response to a 2018 Evergy project in northeast Wichita. Evergy built 105-foot-tall steel poles in front lawns throughout a predominantly low-income, historically Black neighborhood in Wichita to support high-voltage lines connecting three substations in northeast Wichita without telling city leaders or neighborhood residents of their plans.
The ensuing outcry by community leaders and lawmakers led to an apology and donations from the energy company. Evergy bought some of the properties and offered an undisclosed amount of additional compensation to homeowners who opted to stay. The bill doesn’t affect the lines already in place. But the law aims to stop it from happening again without more review and local input.
Evergy has paused the second phase of the project. Some of the metal poles have been taken down, moved closer to the curb or replaced with less obtrusive wooden poles. The company is still developing a plan to connect a station at Mossman and Chautauqua to one at Wichita State University.
The new law would require electric utilities to provide notice to the city and nearby landowners and open a venue for public comment before exercising eminent domain to construct an electric transmission line or beginning work related to the construction a transmission line that’s at least 2.5 contiguous miles through the city and is designed to transfer between 69 and 230 kV of electricity.
David Campbell, president and CEO of Evergy since January, heralded the legislation, calling it “a constructive resolution.”
“Sometimes we get it wrong,” Campbell said. “And we’ve learned through this process.”
Evergy and other utility companies would now have to notify property owners, residents and the city of Wichita six months in advance of building and hold an open house to take public comment.
The law does not give the residents or city the power to stop such a project.
“It doesn’t give us permission to stop them, but at least it gives us opportunity to have a community voice in it when they have open houses,” said Rep. Gail Finney, who sponsored the bill.
Although Kelly had already signed the bill into law on April 8, while in Wichita holding a series of meetings Thursday she said it was important to recognize the work of the Wichita community to pass the legislation.
The signing ceremony was held at Iasis Christian Center, which sits in the shadows of multiple towering 105-foot power poles at 11th and Minnesota.
Wichita Vice Mayor Brandon Johnson, whose district includes the neighborhood where the poles were planted, said the City Council plans to pass a similar ordinance. Johnson said one of the compromises in the bill is that the neighborhood and city doesn’t have the power to veto utility plans.
“That’s one of the compromises,” Johnson said. “I know that we want to be able to say no, but what it does is over six months (it) gives you multiple opportunities to hear and see the proposed plan for the new urban transmission line upgrades and provide that feedback. It will be in the public record and a sitting member of the (Kansas Corporation Commission) will be there to hear.
“So that’s much more than what we had before.”
Johnson said he’s confident other City Council members are in favor of passing a matching city ordinance.
“Everything that was outlined in the law will be city policy,” Johnson said. “And any district that’s impacted, that district advisory board will be notified and then we’ll get a public meeting, so we are making progress on this issue.”
This story was originally published April 29, 2021 at 3:27 PM.