A picture of the CenterPoint easement in question
Now that CenterPoint Energy is actually tearing up backyards and cutting down trees, the Chronicle decided the issue was worthy of front-page City & State coverage:
With the company's permission, at least 22 residents on Twin Hills in southwest Houston extended their back yards onto the utility's 150-foot-wide right of way.
They fenced and landscaped the property and came to consider it the next best thing to their own.
Now CenterPoint wants its land back.
[snip]
Ten days ago — after a one-month delay brokered by City Councilman Mark Goldberg — CenterPoint crews began reclaiming their lost ground.
"We are moving ahead with our plans," said CenterPoint spokeswoman Emily Mir-Thompson, predicting fences will be moved, shrubbery relocated and trees cut or trimmed by early January.
Though the utility has not identified right of way irregularities in other parts of its 1.8 million-customer Houston service area, "it's something that we're looking at citywide," Mir-Thompson said.
We first wrote about this when the Chronicle did a "This Week" section story on the problem, and we were hoping the Chronicle would use its voice to put a little pressure on CenterPoint to work out a compromise. It appears to be too late, now that the work has already begun.
In the newspaper, the Chronicle included a satellite image showing the utility's easement and the fence-lines in question. I must say, when I first read about this easement battle, I assumed that the homeowners' backyards were taking up the WHOLE easement. That is not the case. There is already a lot of wide open easement apart from the homeowners' backyards.
Which leads to this comment recently made by a blogHOUSTON commenter:
It's very suspicious sounding to hear a company like them announce they're going to pay for the re-fencing costs, not to mention legal costs, JUST to prevent something like the North East's blackout, which may not even happen.
I wonder if CP has some kind of deal going on with someone that wants easy access to the easements.
After seeing the picture from high up, I wonder, too.
To see a satellite image of the easement and the fence-lines in question, please click Read More.
Posted by Anne Linehan @ 12/12/04 11:56 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Sphere | Comments (0)
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