Rising 33 metres, power poles anger Lakeview residents

Eyesore, monstrosity, hideous, ugly — just some of the terms being used to describe the power poles being installed in Calgary's Lakeview neighbourhood by AltaLink. 

Still under construction, the pair of poles — called riser structures — are part of the ring road project. Electricity that had previously run across Tsuut'ina First Nation is now being rerouted underground with transmission lines being brought to the surface again near the intersection of 37 Street SW and 66 Avenue SW.

Hence the need for the new neighbourhood additions.

Consultations were misleading, says group

"They don't look anything like the diagram we were shown," Geoff Vanderburg, the president of the Lakeview Community Association, told CBC Calgary's The Homestretch.

Vanderburg told CBC News the community association had been involved in the public consultation process with AltaLink, and Vanderburg was impressed.

But after seeing the poles go up, it all feels disingenuous, he said.

"The emotional response that people have had to these two beasts is really quite something," Vanderburg said.

"I don't know if there's a way to build them to look attractive, but I do know what they have done is went out of their way to make them unattractive."

Hearing from Lakeview residents

Vanderburg says in the few weeks since the poles went up he's received numerous complaints from residents. "They are truly a monstrosity that remind one of the scenes of Mordor in the Lord of the Rings movies," reads one.

Another says, "I seriously don't think I can drive up 66 [Avenue] to my house the rest of my life and think anything but sadness."

Walking around the neighbourhood it is easy to find those who are discontented. The poles sit at the west end of an off-leash dog park and across the street from the entrance to the Weaselhead Flats.

Terese Henderson was out walking her dog when she met neighbours also out for a walk one crisp afternoon. 

"We were just discussing how ugly they are and how we feel we were misled," Henderson said.

"It's just very frustrating." 

Trying to make things right with community

These riser structures — rising 33 metres and with a capacity to have 240 kilovolts coursing across them — are the first of their size used by AltaLink in the province.

They were approved through the public hearing process and commissioned by the Alberta Utilities Commission, said Scott Schreiner, vice president of communications for AltaLink.

"We understand the concern and we've heard it through the community."

Schreiner said the line drawings provided during community consultations indicated the structures could be between 36 and 45 meters tall, but they came in three meters below those estimates.

"The concern is that they're big when you see them on the landscape and we recognize that," Schreiner said.

"So now we're working with the community to try and see if there are some offsetting things we can do to alleviate some of that impact."

At this point, Schreiner said it was too early to say what form those remedies might take. 

Poles there to stay

The Lakeview Community Association has meetings planned for residents as well as further consultations with AltaLink, but ultimately Vanderburg knows what's done is done and the poles are there to stay.

"But I think there is some opportunity here to learn some lessons from this, if we make it clear to AltaLink that the process they went through here was not healthy. It ended up surprising people and a community consultation process that ends up surprising people wasn't effective," Vanderburg said.

"This is a unique design and I'm hoping as a result of the feedback, they go back to the drawing board and look at alternative designs and save other communities from what we've been put through."

• With files from The Homestretch