Summerville planning body adopts policy urging PUC to avoid routing lines through cemeteries; schedules agency meetings

The Summerville Subregional Planning Commission on March 7 adopted a policy asking the Public Utility Commission of Texas to give substantial weight to the presence of cemeteries and burial sites when evaluating transmission‑line routing and urged that routes that would cross or come into close proximity to known burial grounds be avoided.

The policy — presented as a Chapter 391 update to the commission’s planning document — adds language requiring project applicants to identify, map and evaluate known and potential cemetery and burial sites and states that routes bisecting or coming within a few hundred feet of such sites are “incompatible with the community values, historical preservation priorities, and culture heritage of the region.” The commission also approved sending letters to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, and a separately timed letter to Encore, the transmission developer, to request meetings and gather technical input.

Commis…