New power-line towers will go up at Ruby Hill Park after a six-week delay for negotiations and neighbors’ efforts to avoid them.
Neighbors and Xcel Energy officials reached an agreement that they will take to the Denver City Council’s legislative meeting tonight, Councilman Chris Nevitt, who represents the area, said today.
Under the agreement, Xcel will replace existing towers with the taller towers that neighbors had fought against since early this summer.
Xcel will give $100,000 for Ruby Hill Park improvements and continue to give neighbors technical advice on burying power lines.
Xcel said it would cost $600,000 to erect the new towers, while burying them would have cost at least $4 million more.
Neighbors tried to form a district to collect funds from area residents to pay for the lines to be run underground. Nevitt said Xcel has committed to running the lines underground if the money can be raised.
“They’re not happy about it,” Nevitt said this morning of Ruby Hill neighbors.
But he said Ruby Hill residents have started a process they can be proud of. The group met with Mayor John Hickenlooper about their plans to find a way to bury power lines at parks across the city.
“What we are on the cusp of now is moving past the bitter dispute to a path of what we all want for Ruby Hill and other parks around the city,” Nevitt said.
Staff writer George Merritt can be reached at 303-954-1657 or gmerritt@denverpost.com.
