Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Editorial

Council should advocate mitigation measures

Now that members of the community have had an opportunity to tell the Public Utilities Commission what they think of PG&E's plans to build a substation at Winchester Boulevard and Lark Avenue, the Town Council has scheduled a meeting of its own.

On April 6, councilmembers will decide whether or not to offer their own two cents to the debate. Those who live near the proposed Vasona substation are pushing the town to take a side--theirs.

We think the Vasona neighbors would be wise not to insist on the town's taking a position, because we suspect if it did, it would have to side with PG&E and agree that the Vasona site makes the most sense.

That site was selected 25 years ago, and it was no secret that a substation was planned there. What's more, the power lines are already in. Moving the substation would mean establishing new transmission corridors and building new lines across town--at considerable cost.

The most vocal critics of the Vasona site want PG&E to choose an alternate site instead.

But that's awakened neighborhoods in other parts of town. And residents in those neighborhoods are beginning to ask why the substation should go in near them when it's been planned at the Vasona site for years.

Although we argued in an earlier editorial that the town should take a position, we've come to believe that it would be a mistake for the town to do so, since that would mean choosing one neighborhood over the other. That's not a proper role for the town.

That's not to say the town should remain silent. The PUC needs to know that the town is not a disinterested party.

We think what the PUC needs to hear is that the town wants a guarantee from PG&E that the substation will cause minimal disruption to its neighbors.

The town doesn't want the substation to become a blight on any neighborhood in town; that wouldn't be good for the neighborhood or for the town.

Instead of taking a position on where the substation should go, the town should take to the PUC a list of neighborhood concerns. The town should ask the PUC to ensure that PG&E will mitigate those things that would diminish the lives of the substation neighbors.

Additional sound walls, fences, landscaping to hide equipment? These are appropriate and reasonable requests the town could--and should--make.

PG&E is planning no new power lines, only a new substation. The reason Vasona is a logical location is that the power lines are already there.

The substation debate has been high-pitched and acrimonious, and more than a little misinformation has been flying around. It's time for the Town Council to go to the PUC and ask for assurances that what's good for PG&E will not be bad for Los Gatos or any of its neighbors.

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