A group of residents has asked the Denton County Commissioners Court to support a resolution opposing Oncor’s proposed route for a new power line through the Greenbelt Corridor.

Commissioners will take up the matter at a special meeting at 7 p.m. tonight. The meeting also includes a required public hearing on the tax rate, which is set to increase to 27.39 cents per $100 valuation.

Known as the Greenbelt Alliance of Denton County, the group began building opposition to the route segment by gathering signatures at the public meetings Oncor conducted earlier this year. The group hopes to prevent the steel lattice towers and high-voltage lines from going up along Denton’s Greenbelt Corridor between Ray Roberts and Lewisville lakes, according to David Martino, who owns land in the area.

“We started as a group of landowners and it has grown rapidly,” Martino said. “We’re not only a neighborhood issue but a city and a county issue.”

Tim Beaty also owns land that backs up to the Greenbelt, and has three gas transmission lines as well as a power line already running across his property.

“A lot of us land owners are feeling like we’ve given enough,” Beaty said.

Matt Welch, a public affairs consultant based in Austin, said the group is well-organized, well-researched and well-run, and has hired an attorney and a public relations group to help members oppose the segment. The group has asked the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to oppose the segment, as well as the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

The segment is part of a high-voltage power line proposed to run from Krum to Anna, which could be anywhere from 40 to 100 miles long depending on the route chosen. The segment is part of a $4.93 billion statewide project to improve reliability of the electric grid and increase its capacity to carry 18,456 megawatts of wind-generated power from West Texas and the Panhandle.

Other residents are wary of the group’s push, since it means the power lines would end up in someone else’s backyard.

If Oncor doesn’t opt for existing easements it has in the Greenbelt, then the possibility increases that Oncor will choose a route through Sanger, according to Sanger resident Jeffrey M. Lichtman.

“That would definitely kill us,” Lichtman said, adding that it would kill his business, too, because he builds radio astronomy equipment and the power lines would create interference.

Sanger, Aubrey and Pilot Point also have passed resolutions opposing route segments in their area.

Oncor is scheduled to announce the preferred route when it submits plans to the Public Utility Commission of Texas on Sept. 8. Oncor officials have cautioned that the preferred route often is not the final route selected, which is PUC’s decision.

In addition, residents do not have to hire an attorney to represent them in front of PUC as it considers the final route.

PEGGY HEINKEL-WOLFE can be reached at 940-566-6881. Her e-mail address is pheinkel-wolfe@dentonrc.com .