MAPLETON — Residents say they are shocked by the new and larger power poles Utah Power intends to put in their yards.
Others don't like the city recommendation to keep the poles out of their yards — narrowing the 56-foot-wide roads to 50 feet.
The poles are not only larger, Utah Power stakes indicate they will be set deeper into the yards of homes along 300 West and Maple Street, residents complained at a public meeting Thursday with the city Planning Commission.
"We have kind of an uproar," City Recorder Don Walker said.
But zoning officer Bill Jones doesn't think the two people who spoke against the power poles at Thursday's Planning Commission meeting constitute an uproar. Most folks were concerned with narrowing the roads to keep the poles out of yards.
"We're just trying to diffuse the situation," Jones said.
No action was taken because the ordinance to change the road width hadn't been advertised, Jones said.
The huge poles are needed to bring more power into Mapleton, which is getting a new 14 megawatt transformer to meet growth demands.
The current transformer delivers 6.25 megawatts.
Utah Power is rebuilding and enlarging the Mapleton substation, bringing additional power from distribution lines on U.S. 6 in Spanish Fork, a Utah Power news release said. The distribution lines come from U.S. 6 along U-89, where construction is under way.
The 50-year-old substation at 1600 North and 1000 West has been operating at about 113 percent of capacity to serve area growth.
That extra strain could lead to outages, the press release said. About a mile of distribution line along U.S. 6 will also be rebuilt.
E-MAIL: rodger@desnews.com