Plan to run towering power poles along scenic trail in northeast Wichita faces pushback

Northeast Wichita is preparing for another round of towering power poles that some residents worry will disfigure a scenic bike trail and lower their property values when they are installed in 2025.

The 60-year-old transmission line between Evergy’s Wichita State and Mossman substations needs to be replaced, but the plan for running new poles along the Redbud Trail between Maple Grove Cemetery and MacDonald Golf Course has stirred controversy.

The other option Evergy presented was replacing existing power poles on a 2-mile route along Volutsia and 16th Street with significantly larger poles. Last year, the company asked affected residents to weigh in, but the survey “did not reveal a route preference from the community,” they found.

“You are pitting neighborhoods against each other,” former Wichita City Council member Lavonta Williams told an Evergy representative Monday night at a District 1 Advisory Board meeting where more than a dozen residents voiced their frustration with the plan.

City staff working with the company ultimately settled on the Redbud Trail route, determining that “due to the necessary size of the new poles, the proposed project would result in significant negative impact” on neighborhoods along the existing route.

“As we talk about trying not to oppress a community, we are degrading a community, and that is what is going to happen, as well as our property values, which will also be going down,” said Williams, who was instrumental in the conversion of the old rail line into the Redbud Trail during her time on the City Council.

Current District 1 City Council member Brandon Johnson said the solution is imperfect but the best option for replacing the aging transmission line.

“Between those two, the least impactful to front yards was the Redbud Trail,” Johnson said. “I know that that doesn’t make everyone happy.”

An Evergy spokesperson told The Eagle that no information is currently available about the exact number or height of the new poles because engineers are still designing the transmission line. Based on the community survey results, the company plans to install weathered steel poles instead of silver galvanized steel poles.

Evergy says they are in the process of upgrading all of their transmission lines across the state.

A similar transmission line project in 2018 that saw Evergy place 105-foot poles in yards near Ninth and Grove resulted in a state law requiring utility companies to hold public engagement events before exercising eminent domain.

“We saw how the first phase went on the other side of Hillside, and we can all agree it did not go well,” MacDonald resident Kim Curry said. “‘Shameful’ is the word that comes to mind. Front yard or backyard, these poles are disfiguring and inappropriate in a neighborhood setting.

“We need a forward-thinking plan that preserves neighborhoods and green space.”

Community input

The current plan would result in the removal of some trees along the forested bike trail, and poles would be visible to residents in the MacDonald, Fairmount and Ken-Mar neighborhoods.

Meeting attendee Andrew Herr questioned why the utility company can’t bury lines underground along the trail instead.

“Is burying lines expensive? Sure, everything’s expensive,” Herr said. “But I bet a lot of us here broke even or lost money last year. But you know who didn’t? Evergy.”

“In general, underground lines cost an estimated eight times more than rebuilding a line overhead,” Evergy Communications Manager Kaley Bohlen told The Eagle. “This cost, as well as feasibility prevent undergrounding. In many places, room isn’t available to build a transmission line underground because other utilities are already underground in the area.”

But there are exceptions. Under the terms of the city’s franchise agreement with Evergy, all new electric distribution downtown must be installed underground.

“The City may request any portions of Company’s electric distribution facilities in the Downtown Area that are not presently underground to be placed underground at no cost to the City,” it states.

Wichita mayoral candidate Celeste Racette told meeting attendees they have a right to be upset.

“I see these neighborhoods being encroached upon,” Racette said.

“You all have valid concerns absolutely, and those are god awful poles and you should absolutely stand up and let them know you don’t want them in your neighborhood.”

Evergy plans to hold a community meeting this fall to share a preliminary design for the new transmission line. A date has not yet been set, but the meeting will be attended by a representative from the Kansas Corporation Commission, which has regulatory oversight over utility companies.

“You’ll have an opportunity to address your concerns and questions with Evergy at that point,” Johnson said. “They’ve also committed to another meeting at 90 percent where you’ll basically know exactly what they’re doing.”

Community members organizing against Evergy’s plan for replacing the transmission line have started a Facebook page called “Polestoppers: MacDonald and Fairmount.” A number of people brought buttons to Monday’s meeting that read “Huge ugly utility poles do not belong in neighborhoods.”