Uncertainty continues to loom over Portland General Electric’s controversial project to upgrade transmission lines near Wilsonville.
The electricity company was granted a certificate from the Oregon Public Utility Commission allowing it to condemn property for a project upgrading power lines and poles along Stafford Road, but was recently denied land use approval for the project by Clackamas County. Despite the denial, residents who have waged a two-year fight against the project fear PGE could condemn the property anyway.
What does the project involve?
PGE has faced a complex web of legal challenges to implementing the project along Stafford Road, which would upgrade approximately 7.4 miles of transmission lines and power poles between the Rosemont and Wilsonville substations. It is one leg of the Tonquin Project, which involves building a new substation and upgrading 11 miles of transmission lines across Tualatin, Sherwood, the Stafford area, Wilsonville and unincorporated Clackamas County.
In past interviews, PGE spokesperson Andrea Platt has said the project will help modernize the power grid and allow redundancy — alternative routes power can travel along if one is blocked — to accommodate future growth…