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Compromise proposed for electrical tower application
Thanks to some assistance from elected officials, residents of Wage Drive in Leesburg might not have to view a Dominion Power transmission line tower at the end of their street.
The tower, which Dominion was set to begin to build next month, is part of 230-kilovolt line running from Pleasant View to Hamilton that will bring more power to western Loudoun.
In February, the Virginia State Corporation Commission recommended that Dominion follow a route that would place the tower in a Virginia Department of Transportation right of way adjacent to a property on Wage Drive.
Dominion purchased the house on that property, so it would have access to build the tower.
At a community meeting Nov. 6 hosted by Dominion, the power company proposed another location 220 feet east, near the Leesburg Baptist Church.
Leesburg Mayor Kristen Umstattd said both options would mean a considerable number of trees would have to be cut down on a slope behind Wage Drive, which would eliminate the sound and visual buffer residents have from the Route 7 bypass.
“The main goal at this point is to preserve the trees on the slope,” Umstattd said.
At the meeting, residents expressed their opposition to the tower's proposed placement, prompting Umstattd and Del. Joe May (R-western Loudoun) to propose a third placement.
Their plan is to move the pole 230 feet southeast of the Wage Drive location to the shoulder of the Route 7 west bypass.
Les O'Donnell, Dominion's project manager for the transmission line, called the proposal an “interesting one.”
“Up to this point we had no inkling that we could get that close to Route 7,” O'Donnell said. “I'm grateful for hearing some possible solutions which previously were not even viable.”
He and company spokeswoman Le-Ha Anderson said Dominion would be glad to talk with town officials and VDOT to see if that option is viable.
Anderson said that nothing is set at this point, so residents do not have to worry about construction beginning in the near future.
“At the moment, we do not have a preferred location,” O'Donnell added. “We're very open minded about getting what's best for all parties involved.”
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