Wearing highlighter yellow shirts with the phrase “BURY THE LINES” printed on the front, a crowd from Frisco filled the rows of the Public Utility Commission of Texas’ hearing room March 3. The group included residents, business owners and city officials who drove to Austin that morning to attend the open meeting.

The audience listened as the PUCT decided to delay making a decision on a stipulation agreement that would allow buried power lines in West Frisco along Main Street. The PUCT will discuss the case during its March 24 meeting and make a final decision in April.

The stipulation agreement—signed by Brazos Electric, the city of Frisco, PUCT staff and other parties—calls to bury proposed power lines in West Frisco and build overhead lines for the portion of the route that goes through the town of Little Elm. The city has agreed to contribute more than $12 million toward the cost of burying the lines.

The agreement would allow Frisco to widen Main Street to six lanes like other major thoroughfares in the city.

During the meeting, Frisco Mayor Maher Maso said the city has been holding off on widening Main Street, in spite of the growing population and increased traffic, in light of the proposed power lines. The city has argued before that installing overhead power lines in Main Street’s median would hinder the city from widening the roadway.

This image shows Main Street without the road being widened and without power lines.[/caption]

“We have put off one of our capital projects and one of our immediate needs to try to come to a consensus on this,” Maso said.

PUCT Commissioner Kenneth Anderson said he had several issues with the agreement he wanted addressed prior to making a decision on the case.

Anderson did not list all of his issues during the meeting, but some concerns he did raise included the difficulty to repair underground lines and whether the buried lines would be able to handle the future capacity of electricity needs.

In a statement, Maso said the city will spend the next few weeks working to answer those questions.

This image shows what Main Street could look like if underground lines are not approved.[/caption]

“Given our growth, Frisco needs to move forward with its plans to expand infrastructure; however, in the interest of saving money for taxpayers and ratepayers, we prefer to work with Brazos to coordinate construction and bury the proposed transmission lines,” he said.

Road widening

Like all other major thoroughfares in Frisco, Main Street is planned to be six lanes wide, said Ben Brezina, assistant to the city manager.

In addition to adding a lane on either side of the roadway, double turn lanes would be added to major intersections.

Main Street’s median would be narrowed to add the extra lanes. Brezina said the median on Main Street was intentionally built wide in preparation for future improvements.

“The way we plan for our roadways is always to have the water line in the median and for the pavement to be added later,” he said.[polldaddy poll=9338875]

The east portion of Main Street was widened last year. If the stipulation agreement is approved, the city would award a construction contract for the west portion within 15 months of the PUCT’s decision. Once the city awards a contract, the widening project could take up to two years to complete.

The widening project would include installing a water line and the power lines under Main Street’s median.

“The water improvement and the pavement improvement would be designed in coordination with the transmission lines piece of it from Brazos,” Brezina said.

Project cost

The total cost of the project with the power lines installation is estimated to be more than $24 million. The city has agreed to pay for about half of the project through coordinated construction costs and a payment of nearly $11 million to Brazos.

CoServ, a not-for-profit electric distribution cooperative and one of Brazos Electric’s members, has agreed to raise its utility franchise fee from 3 percent to 4 percent. That increase would help pay for the city’s contribution to the project cost.

A utility franchise fee is paid by utility companies to cities for the right to build power lines and related infrastructure on a city’s right of way. With the current franchise fee rate, Frisco receives about $3 million per year from CoServ, Brezina said. With the increased rate, the city would receive about $4 million per year.

Utility customers in Frisco will see an increase on their bills of about $1.50 per month, CoServ spokesperson Oscar Martinez said.

This fee increase would be the first since 1977. Some other neighboring cities already have franchise fee rates set at 4 percent, according to the city of Frisco.

Importance to businesses

Main Street currently has as many as 44,000 vehicles travel the roadway every day. As the population grows and traffic congestion increases, consumers will be deterred from traveling to certain businesses, said Shona Huffman, director of governmental affairs for the Frisco Chamber of Commerce.

“Certainly there is an element of consumers who avoid going to businesses on Main Street because they don’t want the extra traffic, and they don’t want the headache,” she said.

Widening Main Street would alleviate some of that traffic and could encourage more developers to build commercial buildings along Main Street knowing the roadway could accommodate the business, Huffman said.

“The city’s willingness to participate in the settlement says that the commercial developments are a huge economic driver of our community and need to be protected, as well as the residential developments.”

—Shona Huffman, director of governmental affairs for the Frisco Chamber of Commerce

“There are several developments that are underway right now that were actually somewhat holding until they knew about the power lines decision,” Huffman said. “[Main Street] will become an attractive area when it’s a six-lane thoroughfare, it’s easier to get to [and] consumers can move in and out quickly.”

Huffman said the stipulation agreement, if approved, would help the Frisco business community.

“The city’s willingness to participate in the settlement says that the commercial developments are a huge economic driver of our community and need to be protected, as well as the residential developments,” she said.

The chamber plans to have a representative in Austin in April, Huffman said. Now that the PUCT has heard testimony, the decision is completely in the commissioners’ hands, she said.

Kara Nuzback contributed to this story.