transmission lines. Brady urges landown-
ers to react quickly to a notice that their land is on a potential power line route. While there was once a “preferred” route designation among the potential routes utility companies had to pro- pose, that is no longer the case. In the past, power
Jim Malewitz, energy reporter for the Texas Tribune, moder- ated the Private Property Rights Town Hall, which was sponsored by Hargrove Ranch Insurance. The town hall of- fered discussions on sur- face water use and eminent domain.
line companies would indicate their preferred route for a power trans- mission line in their cor- respondence with land- owners. Landowners on the alternative routes of- ten incorrectly assumed the preferred route was
the established route and would ignore the issue. Landowners on the preferred route would attend the
meetings at the PUC and get the route moved off the preferred route and onto one of the alternative routes and onto the land of those who did not participate in the process. “After that,” Brady said, “the eminent domain process
works a lot like the pipeline eminent domain process, except the landowners can’t really contest the right to take, or not with any legitimate hope of success.” Zabel added, “What I’ve found with power lines,
especially the larger ones, is no one really wants them on their ranch. Routing is very important.” When utility companies fi rst propose a transmis-
sion line, they hold public meetings to inform the public about the possible routes. “If you actually want to defeat it and get it off your property, then you have to get with other people who are on the same route you’re on,” and work together to get it off your property. Trying to work with other landowners on other routes only leads to confl icts among the landowners, he said, “because your main goal is to get it off your ranch. You have to fi nd people on the same route you’re on and you have to fi ght to put it on someone else’s route. People want to pool together, save resources and hire the same lawyer. They can’t unless on they are same route,” he observed. Zabel recalled a handful of cases in which he repre-
62 The Cattleman July 2014
sented landowners to the PUC. “There is a fair degree of success if you get enough horsepower behind you to get routes changed from one to another. If you are a squeaky wheel and make things very unpleasant, you have a better chance of shifting to another route. “Conversely, if you don’t get it shifted off the route,
a lot of times, the power lines will go right through the best part of your property and bisect it. At the PUC you can talk to them about following boundary properties — moving it somewhere you don’t have to look at it. If you don’t get the route moved [off your land], at least get it moved to a part of property where it is much less intrusive than putting it in middle of your property.” Zabel repeated his earlier comment, “Fight at the
PUC. Once it comes out of the PUC, the only issue you’re going to be fi ghting about in condemnation is damages. That’s it.” And that brought up the question of what are dam-
ages? Brady said, “I have said for years that power line companies could put guys like me out of business if they would make everybody pretty good offers, but they don’t. “They tend to try to get all the land they can bought
at basically zero damage – just the cost of that acre- age. Then once they get that bought, they go litigate with everybody else. Some of us think the data show that those power lines do damage the value of the land outside the easement. One reason we think that is be- cause, like Tom just said, nobody wants them. They’re ugly and they hurt land value,” Brady said.
Transmission line effect on land value Malewitz asked Brady and Zabel to explain some
of the deleterious effects of power transmission lines on land value. Brady said, “Increasingly, I see power line companies
putting on appraisers who say there is some damage outside of just the easement. Fifteen years ago when I started in this kind of work, I was doing some work on the power line side. Nobody testifi ed that there was any damage outside of the easement. “Now you see appraisers for power line compa-
nies trying to fi gure out ways to limit that damage or calculate it.” He continued, saying “Landowners’ appraisers have data that indicate the damage could be anywhere from 15 to 25 percent of the value of the ranch,” depending on factors such as the size of the property and the size of the power line easement in relation to the size of the property. Also important, Brady added, is “how the power
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