Marfa City Council members voted Monday to deny American Electric Power (AEP) a special use permit application for a new substation after over a year of back and forth with the company about the project.
Council members Mark Morrison and Eddie Pallarez voted to approve the permit, but were outnumbered by Council members Travis Acreman, Raul Lara and Mark Cash who voted to deny the permit.
It was one of the last, if not the last, meetings for Morrison and Pallarez, who were ousted from their council seats in this past Saturday’s municipal election by challengers Katy Kowal and Emily Kolb. Cash, an incumbent, held onto his seat in the election.
Several people who spoke during public comment said the election results were directly related to the AEP substation issue, which among other recent events, helped galvanize residents to get engaged with local government.
“ Saturday's municipal election was a clear referendum on the current city council,” Robert Halpern said. “And Marfa residents spoke in no uncertain terms that they voted for change.”
Council members heard from over 20 locals, all of whom opposed the industrial project primarily because of its proposed location within a residential neighborhood. Buck Johnston listed the names of several residents that surround the proposed substation site to appeal to council members.
“ Sandra, Minerva, Sara and Ryan, Alfredo, William, Ginger and Chick…” Johnston said. “These are residents who contribute to our community and they matter to me, and I believe they should matter to you.”
New Marfa resident Phil Jackson, who bought a nearby abandoned house, said he knew the substation was a possibility when he bought the property, which he intends to fix up.
“I took a chance on it because I believed that this town would do the right thing and vote no on it,” Jackson said.
He added that he was drawn to Marfa for its beauty, and its quiet — a sentiment others brought up in terms of preserving quality of life for full time residents and attracting tourists.
Marfa resident Miguel Mendías urged council members not to dismiss aesthetics, arguing that prioritizing how the town looks is actually practical, especially when considering that is what attracted the late artist Donald Judd here — someone who would go on to have a lasting impact on the town and its economy.
“There are certain decisions that we make, as a town, that can affect our town for the next several decades, if not for a generation or more. I really think that this is one of those decisions, where we put this substation,” Mendías said. “It does matter what it looks like.”
Stephen “Chick” Rabourn, chair of the city’s planning and zoning commission – which recommended the city deny first a rezone then the special use permit for the new substation – said next steps should involve creating a task force to work with AEP to find a suitable location for the new substation that allows Marfa to “grow in an intentional and beneficial way for everybody.”
After public comment, council members convened into executive session with the city attorney before they returned to vote on AEP’s permit application.
Council member Acreman said his decision to vote against the permit was due to the substation being out of step with the city’s comprehensive planning document, something the city is required to follow by law.
“ It is very clear that this area is meant to be designated for housing, for beautification, for nature trails,” Acreman said.
He echoed the sentiments of several residents about the potential flooding of Alamito Creek, which borders the proposed substation site.
Council member Pallarez said he supported the substation due to the substantial property tax revenue benefit for the city. He said that for every person present who opposed the substation, there were two people he ran into at the grocery store or at church who supported it, to which someone in the audience replied “where are they?”
There were audible gasps and an eruption of applause from the audience after the council voted down the plan. A neighborhood resident who has been fighting against the substation for over a year wept at the news. At a previous council meeting the sellers of the property spoke to the toll the process had taken on the family.
In an interview Tuesday, Cash said he “hated” that it dragged on so long.
“ It was affecting a lot of people, including us, because it was a lot,” he said.
Cash said he voted against the permit application in part because of what was discussed in closed session, which he declined to elaborate on. He said he knows the substation is needed, but after taking all the citizen comments to heart over the past several months, he ultimately felt like the residential lot was not the right location.
“People may not think so, but I am very open-minded,” Cash said. “I try to look at the pros and cons of the location and I think I was outweighed by the cons.”
Lara said he voted against the substation permit because he felt like the newly-elected council members should have a say in the matter.
“ I would've liked to wait until the ladies took their seats and had a voice,” he said.
AEP spokesperson Fred Guerrero said in a statement that the company will move forward with identifying a viable location for the new substation.
“This project remains critically needed to support system reliability and serve the long-term needs of the area, and we will continue our efforts until an appropriate site is secured,” he said.
The new substation is intended to replace an existing substation on Oak Street which supplies the City of Marfa with power and is routinely operating over capacity, according to AEP. The company has said the new substation would triple the capacity of the existing substation and cost anywhere from $7 to $10 million. Guerrero said AEP will continue to keep eyes on the Oak Street substation while a location for a new substation is being pursued.
“We are committed to ongoing monitoring, particularly of the transformer oil, which is essential for tracking equipment health. One transformer will need to be replaced in the near future, and we're actively working on a plan to make that happen,” Guerrero said. “We'll continue these efforts to ensure reliability until the new substation is online.”
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