CAG Final Report

PSE’s “Community Advisory Group” (CAG) held their final meeting in December, 2014. In a meeting attended by nearly 400 residents, the CAG decided to recommend two possible routes for the overhead transmission lines. Both routes follow the existing transmission corridor, but the slightly preferred route takes a short detour around Bellevue’s Eastgate and Somerset neighborhoods, preferring a route through the more commercial zone of Factoria.

Citizens were surprised at the process used to finalize these recommendations. There was no vote taken, and none of the CAG members signed the Final Report (in stark contrast to procedures followed for committees considering previous PSE projects).  In fact, 8 of the 20 members signed a “Dissenting Report,” which complains that the group was never allowed to discuss alternative solutions.

Read the Dissenting Report in Appendix B of the Final Report here.

One of the dissenting signatures came from the City of Newcastle, which took a courageous stand for their citizens.  The city’s Director of Community Development said that the project would cause “significant and irreparable impacts on homes and businesses along the routes and to our entire community.”  Since Newcastle must issue building permits for PSE to run the line through their city, this is a wrench in PSE’s plans.