Res. No. 697
Resolution calling on the New York State Public Service Commission to reject Con Edison’s Proposed M29 Transmission Line and Academy Substation Project and adopt the alternate route for the M29 Plan proposed by the Bronx, Manhattan, Yonkers M29 Joint Monitoring Committee.
By Council Members Koppell, Brewer and Vacca
Whereas, Consolidated Edison has proposed a $215 million project involving the construction of a new M29 transmission line to carry 345 kilovolts of electricity from its Sprain Brook Substation in Yonkers to a new substation to be built in Manhattan at Academy Street and West 201st Street; and
Whereas, The communities affected by the proposed transmission line construction project share Con Edison’s goals of upgrading the company’s transmission system, especially following those communities’ experiences during the major Northeast blackout in 2003; and
Whereas, Con Edison’s proposed plan calls for the utility to excavate streets and install the transmission line alongside many residential buildings and businesses, including along Riverdale Avenue in the Bronx and Broadway in Manhattan; and
Whereas, The Bronx, Manhattan, Yonkers M29 Joint Monitoring Committee, composed of Bronx and Manhattan elected officials and Community Board members as well as Yonkers representatives, has conducted a thorough review of Con Edison’s application to the New York State Public Service Commission (“PSC”) and has prepared and entered into public record a proposed alternate route for the M-29 Plan; and
Whereas, To ensure that Con Edison and the PSC address public safety, community and business concerns, New York City Council Members Koppell, Jackson, and Martinez, as well as several other Federal, State, and County elected officials, became active parties in the PSC application proceedings; and
Whereas, The Council of the City of New York endorses the efforts of these elected representatives on behalf of their constituents to reduce negative impacts and to increase potential benefits of Con Edison’s M29 project and urges the PSC to insist that Con Edison select a more direct and less disruptive transmission line route through Yonkers, the Bronx and Manhattan; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Council of the City of New York calls on the New York State Public Service Commission to reject Con Edison’s Proposed M29 Transmission Line and Academy Substation Project and adopt the alternate route for the M29 Plan proposed by the Bronx, Manhattan, Yonkers M29 Joint Monitoring Committee.
BRSSssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssLS#2413sssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss1/29/07