In spite of strong community opposition, the BernCo CPC approved the PNM NAA Substation project at their December 3 meeting. SHHA members are determining our options going forward for fighting the powerlines on Tramway. This web page will be updated soon; please check back for new information!

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Sandia Heights Residents oppose siting overhead 115 kV transmission towers along Tramway Blvd when an alternative route exists!

A Call to Action: What you Can Do

• ✅  Attend the community meeting with PNM representatives on November 13 at 5:00 PM at St. Chad Episcopal Church, 7171 Tennyson St NE, Albuquerque, NM 87122
• ✅  Email a protest letter to the Bernalillo County Planning Commission by November 17

• ❗ Attend the County Planning Commission hearing on December 3 at 9:00 AM at the Ken Sanchez Commission Chambers, 415 Silver Ave SW

What PNM is proposing

• Building a new substation on the Paseo del Norte Frontage Road adjacent to Bernalillo County Fire Station #35

• Placing 90 ft transmission poles with 115 kV transmission lines along Paseo del Norte to Tramway and then south Tramway to Academy (see red line on the map below)

• Stringing the transmission lines along the east side of Tramway, adjacent to the running and biking paths as well residents in Quail Ridge, Tramway Terrace and other Sandia Heights communities.

Why Sandia Heights Residents Oppose the Tramway Blvd Transmission Line Route

Wildfire Risk, WUI Exposure & Evacuation Constraints

1. High Fire Risk Confirmed by Official Plans

• The Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Hazard Mitigation Plan (2022–2027) ranks wildfire as Highly Likely with Extensive and Catastrophic potential impacts.
• The Bernalillo County Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP, 2022) designates Sandia Heights North (“La Luz”) as HIGH risk and Sandia Heights South as MEDIUM.
• The proposed Tramway transmission corridor sits directly within the Wildland–Urban Interface (WUI) where fire can rapidly spread between vegetative and structural fuels.

2. Evacuation Limitations Unique to Sandia Heights

• Tramway Boulevard is the only ingress/egress for all Sandia Heights residents.
• Eubank (the alternate route) has multiple exit corridors and far lower WUI exposure.
• Any closure of Tramway—whether for fire response, helicopter operations, or protection of hazardous arroyos—leaves no viable evacuation route for Sandia Heights.

3. Community Mitigation Efforts Undermined

• SHHA’s Environment & Safety Committee and volunteers routinely conduct defensible-space improvements, fuels reduction, dead-tree removal, home-hardening education, and evacuation preparedness.
• Introducing 90-foot electrical towers into a high-risk WUI corridor contradicts and undermines all of these fire-resilience measures.
• PNM’s statement that the Tramway route has “low fire risk” or the “same risk level as Eubank” is directly contradicted by County wildfire plans.

II. Sensitive Receptors, EMF Exposure & PNM’s Selective Criteria

1. Selective Application of “Sensitive Receptor” Criteria

• PNM excluded 40 homes, Little Cloud Park, and the Tramway walking/biking trail—all within 100 feet of the proposed towers—from its “sensitive receptor” analysis.
• Yet PNM used schools and parks (farther from the lines) to reject alternate routes.
• This inconsistency demonstrates a selective use of criteria rather than a full risk evaluation.

2. Lack of EMF Modeling

• PNM has provided no transparent, quantitative EMF analysis for the Tramway alignment.
• Homes, park users, walkers, runners, and hundreds of daily bike-path users would be significantly closer to the transmission corridor than the receptors PNM cites elsewhere.
• Decisions based solely on avoidance criteria—without actual exposure data—are incomplete and insufficient for responsible infrastructure planning.

III. Open Space, Scenic, and Multimodal Corridor Impacts

1. Impact on County and City Recreational Assets

• The Tramway multi-use trail is part of the Bernalillo County Comprehensive Open Space Network, which the County commits to “preserve and protect from development.”
• The Tramway bike path is designated by NMDOT as a Tier 1 Route, meaning it has high recreational demand, tourism value, and bicycle use.
• This corridor is one of the most heavily used recreational routes in New Mexico, with year-round use by families, seniors, commuters, and tourists.

2. Impact on Scenic Views and Tourism

• The Sandia Peak Tramway is one of the largest tourist destinations in the City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County.
• Most visitors reach it via either Paseo del Norte or Tramway Blvd, and both routes provide long stretches where an unobstructed, panoramic view of the Sandia Mountains dominates the approach.
• The proposed Tramway transmission line route would place 90-foot towers directly between visitors and the mountains, from Academy Blvd nearly to Paseo del Norte—permanently altering one of the region’s most iconic scenic gateways.

3. Conflict with County Planning Priorities

• Bernalillo County, the City of Albuquerque, and NMDOT have all designated the Tramway corridor for:
  • multimodal improvements,
  • trail and bikeway connectivity,
  • open space preservation,
  • scenic-view protection.
• PNM’s siting documents incorrectly state that there are “no special resource factors” and that no viewshed analysis is needed—despite the corridor being a primary recreational and visual asset.

4. Quality of Life & Public Benefit

• Transmission towers along Tramway would degrade the experience of tens of thousands of community users annually and diminish the character of one of the County’s most visible public landscapes.

IV. Insurance Risk & Community Commitments

1. Insurance Impacts Already Occurring

• Residents report premium increases, cancellations, and requirements for additional fire protections due to wildfire risk.

• Insurance companies use proprietary risk models, not PNM’s opinion.

• Adding tall electrical structures in a known high-risk WUI corridor increases ignition risk and may further jeopardize coverage availability and affordability.

2. Community Investments in Safety

• Residents have invested heavily in home hardening, defensible space, fuels reduction, and property maintenance to meet rising insurance standards.

• PNM’s proposal adds new ignition hazards and aerial-suppression obstacles, placing an unfair burden on residents who have already invested in fire prevention.

What Sandia Heights Residents Want

Because of these combined risks—wildfire, evacuation, EMF exposure, open space impacts, insurance vulnerability, and selective or incomplete technical analysis—Sandia Heights residents request that the County Commission:

1. Postpone the Special Use Permit decision for the substation until the transmission line routing is finalized and presented as a single integrated project.

2. Deny the substation permit if the final routing proposes transmission lines along Tramway Boulevard, as this routing is incompatible with wildfire safety, public health, County planning, and community protection.

Fire risk is real!

See the 2018 GRIT documenting three wildfires that summer.

See another picture of the 2018 fire caused by a bird on a power line.

Process & Timeline

• Applications filed: August 28, 2025
  (Cases CSU2025-0009 and SPR2025-0006)
• September 3, 2025 — Initial County Planning Commission (CPC) hearing
  PNM presented its proposal to build a new substation and associated transmission lines in North Albuquerque Acres. The preferred substation site is adjacent to Fire Station #35 on the Paseo del Norte frontage road. An alternative route would run west on Paseo del Norte and south on Eubank.
  The CPC voted to continue both cases to December 3, 2025 to allow further review.
  All documents and staff reports from the September 3 hearing can be viewed in the County’s September 3 Agenda Packet, under cases CSU2025-0009 and SPR2025-0006.
• November 13, 2025 — SHHA Community Meeting about this issue
  5:00 PM at St. Chad Episcopal Church, 7171 Tennyson St NE
• November 17, 2025 — Deadline for comments to be included in staff report update
  Written comments submitted by end of day on November 17 will be forwarded to the CPC and summarized in the staff report update.
• November 18 – November 25 (noon) — Comments forwarded as “Additional Documents”
  Comments received during this window will be sent to the CPC but not included in the staff report.
• After noon on November 25, 2025 — Comments not forwarded
  Comments received after this deadline will not be provided to the CPC prior to the hearing.
• December 3, 2025 — Continued CPC hearing
  9:00 AM, Ken Sanchez Commission Chambers,
  415 Silver Ave SW, 1st Floor, Bernalillo County @ Alvarado Square.
  The CPC will decide whether to accept new testimony and evidence from PNM and the public and may allow oral comments at the hearing.
• Next steps:
  Following the CPC decision, the Bernalillo County Board of Commissioners will consider the CPC’s recommendation.
  If approved, PNM’s projected schedule is to begin construction in 2026 and place the new system in service in 2027.

Links and Resources

• PNM's project website: https://www.pnm.com/naa
• A sample letter that you can send in opposition to the power lines.
• A detailed analysis by community member D.N. Jenkins.