WASILLA -- More than two years after Wasilla rejected a towering Matanuska Electric Association transmission line along the Parks Highway corridor, the city planning commission has approved a new route for the line.
The Wasilla Planning Commission on Tuesday voted to approve an MEA permit application for one of three routes the Palmer-based electric cooperative submitted after almost a year of public input, according to an MEA statement. The route of the above-ground line parallels the highway to the south, then runs along it west of the Palmer-Wasilla Highway intersection.
The commission in August 2013 told MEA any transmission line along the Parks corridor would have to be buried, citing the city's "viewshed" and threats to future development in the area. MEA balked at the cost and maintenance challenges a buried line could bring.
Now that the commission has approved the line, MEA says its next steps will include right-of-way acquisition and a detailed engineering design with construction planned for the summer of 2017.