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The commission voted Wednesday night to approve a new list of “special exceptions� to the city’s Uniform Development Code, which otherwise bans overhead power lines along city-designated scenic and gateway corridors.

The amendments now will be presented as a recommendation for final approval by the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ City Council. If they are approved, TEP would still have to request specific exceptions through a public process before a zoning examiner.

TEP is seeking to build a 138-kilovolt transmission line — with metal poles from 75 to 110 feet tall — from a substation at South Kino Parkway and East 36th Street up Kino to a new substation next to the Banner University Medical Center, and then up Campbell Avenue to a substation at its DeMoss-Petrie power plant just east of Interstate 10 off West Grant Road.

TEP says the new line is needed to increase capacity and reliability amid growing demand and to serve the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, which has agreed to buy 100% renewable power from the utility.

Neighborhood activists and some city council members objected, citing potential visual blight and lost property values in neighborhoods in or near the line and the city ordinances intended to protect ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥â€™s Gateway Corridor Zone and Scenic Corridor Zone.

But TEP says installing the line underground would cost more than 10 times the cost of overhead lines and opposes paying for the extra cost estimated at up to $60 million through ratepayer revenues.

A city zoning officer rejected TEP’s request for a variance for the new substation last year, saying it could not be approved without a plan for the entire roughly 7-mile-long line.

TEP’s proposed transmission line route ran afoul of a general prohibition on overhead transmission lines along scenic and gateway corridors, which include North Campbell as a Gateway Corridor.

Special exceptions

On Wednesday, the Planning Commission approved an amended set of possible special exceptions to the scenic- and gateway-corridor ordinances to allow the installation of overhead transmission lines under certain conditions, like in areas already zoned for industrial uses.

That will give TEP the opportunity to win zoning approval to install at least part of the Kino-DeMoss Petrie transmission line overhead, though the question of who would pay for undergrounding in other areas remains as TEP is still opposed to recovering the cost through rates.

Existing city ordinances had allowed special exceptions for utility installations including water and phone lines and neighborhood-level power distribution lines but had no provision for high-voltage transmission lines, which are installed on much taller towers.

The code amendments, initially developed by city staff with input from TEP, were amended after stakeholders including neighborhood advocates said they would essentially gut the overhead-line protections by giving the utility too much leeway in meeting the required criteria.

The amendments would allow a zoning examiner to approve special exceptions for overhead power line installations if a proposed project meets at least two of a list of a dozen criteria, including that a project is deemed compatible with surrounding zoning and land uses, would have “minimal impact on residential areas,� or it is designed and built to be “as unobtrusive as possible.�

But TEP could also qualify under other criteria allowing overhead lines if a transmission-line replacement project is no more than 25% larger than equipment it replaces, if an overhead line is needed to serve Davis-Monthan Air Force Base or other national-defense assets or if it is consistent with “unless it is technologically impossible and/or clearly financially cost prohibitive.�

After the original proposal was amended at the request of commissioners to remove or alter several criteria sought by TEP, the 13-member Planning Commission passed the amended proposal Wednesday on a 7-1 vote, with one member recusing himself and four members absent.

The development-code amendments are expected to be presented to mayor and council at its July 12 meeting, said Dan Bursuck, section manager for code development for the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Planning and Development Services Department.

“Our discussions with the City of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ have been productive and we’re pleased with last night’s vote,â€� TEP spokesman Joe Barrios said. “We look forward to continuing our work together as we prepare for the current and future energy needs of our community.â€�

The special-exceptions proposal was amended in response to comments from the , a group including about a dozen neighborhood associations in the affected areas pushing to make TEP bury the new line.

At the group’s urging, the commission cut TEP-backed special exceptions when overhead lines along the scenic and gateway routes would avoid adverse impacts elsewhere, or where existing lines, vertical structures or buildings already compromise the “viewshed.�

Lesser of two evils

Several planning commission members expressed deep misgivings over TEP’s plans and the proposed amendment package, which was adopted with the minimum number of votes needed for passage.

Commission member Abreeza Zegeer, who chairs the Westside Neighborhood Association and represents Ward 3, was the sole “no� vote on the code amendments.

“I’m still very much opposed to allowing TEP to above-ground along our scenic routes and corridors,â€� said Zegeer, a retired University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ professor.

She cited the high-voltage transmission poles that dominant the landscape along much of West Grant Road.

“The city is looking more and more not like our little adobe home here, it’s looking like an industrial area,â€� Zegeer said. “Especially down Campbell Avenue there are a lot of historic districts, the University of ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and a lot of businesses along there... there should not be huge transmission poles running down that part of Campbell.â€�

Zegeer said the city should seek possible federal funding for infrastructure improvements like new sewer and water lines that can be replaced as lines are installed underground.

Other commissioners expressed similar misapprehensions but voted for the code amendments to maintain a local, public process for the special exceptions.

Ward 2 commissioner Shannon McBride-Olson said she didn’t feel comfortable with rejecting the proposed amendments because under the current process an appeal could be decided at the state level, removing local control.

The current process for relief from the code involves requesting a zoning variance, which is reviewed by the city’s Board of Adjustment and subject to appeal to the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Supreme Court.

The special-exception process requires notification, a neighborhood meeting, and a public hearing with the zoning examiner, prior to a decision, which may be appealed to the mayor and council.

Commissioner Moniqua Lane, a real-estate developer who represents Ward 6, said she’s not opposed to special exceptions but she felt uncomfortable with approving the transmission-line exceptions.

“I do think this is, for lack of a better phrase, the lesser of two evils,� Lane said, adding she would have preferred that the commission has more time to further narrow the exceptions criteria.

Commission member Jay Young of Ward 5 said he was against giving TEP dispensation to build overhead lines in the city’s scenic and gateway corridors and criticized the utility for pushing for a variance “behind closed doors.�

TEP’s proposal came as a surprise to some city officials — including council members — after a zoning examiner in May 2021 denied the utility’s request for a permit to build the new substation at the north edge of the UA campus and Banner-UMC, citing the lack of an approved line route.

TEP filed an application for approval of the Kino line route with the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee last August but withdrew it in January to allow more time to negotiate with the city and stakeholders. The utility is now planning to refile its application for consideration by the line-siting panel in the first quarter of 2023.

Bursuck told the commission Wednesday that the Planning and Development Services Department got a late start on analyzing TEP’s proposal because it was originally considered by the city’s Transportation Department as a utility easement issue.

But Young ended up voting for the special-exception amendments, as did Planning Commission Chairwoman Lexy Wellott, who works as a planner and project manager at The Planning Center.

“ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ is a special place for all of us, and honoring those scenic and gateway corridors is important,â€� Wellott said. “But I agree that, as utilizing the special-exception process in my day-to-day work, this is the more robust process and that it involves more of that dialogue between the public and the zoning examiner … and it’s not a political decision where dollars may speak or louder voices may be heard.â€�