Even though they may benefit from the project, city commissioners weren’t so keen on a high-power transmission line barreling through a rural county road.

Commissioners Jeremy Matlow and Curtis Richardson said flatly at Wednesday's commission meeting they could not support the NextEra Energy project if it came down Tram Road where it would pass through Leon and Jefferson counties.

“If something came back to me that included that stretch of Tram Road I couldn’t support it,” Richardson told NextEra’s External Affairs Director Tim Bryant during a lengthy back-and-forth during the meeting.

Richardson pointed to the secretive nature in which the utility giant approached the project, only bringing it to local residents in the projected path as they were seeking to purchase private easements.

“I’m really concerned about how this process has been handled. One of the things we have prided ourselves on is transparency and how decisions have been made,” he said. “We are a community. Leon County is a community.”

Bryant said the project hadn't been through public vetting because energy officials were still working on determining the best route to run the transmission line.

"We didn’t believe was beneficial to the landowners," he said. "This line is still being engineered. We are planning an open house here in Leon County in the coming weeks."

Bryant warned that should commissioners oppose allowing the project to come through Tallahassee via Tram Road, alternate routes with potentially more environmental impact could be considered.

City Hall was packed with residents who don’t live in Tallahassee’s city limits but still urged officials to consider the impact to their neighbors should they agree to work with NextEra.

Matlow took a drive out Tram Road before Wednesday's meeting. He admitted he didn't particularly know where he was going until he started seeing signs reading "Say no to transmission power lines."

The picturesque drive elicited concerns about how county residents' quality of life could be affected.

He said he was concerned with the fast pace of the project and that, under direct questioning, Bryant could not provide answers about alternate routes that were being considered and potential environmental impacts.

“I could imagine how if I was in that position how that would affect my quality of life,” he said. “I wouldn’t feel comfortable if the county was voting on something that affected my constituents and I couldn’t answer a very basic question about why is the route coming this way or why is it not going that way. Those aren’t hard questions to answer.”

Commissioners voted 4-0 to direct City Manager Reese Goad to negotiate a memorandum of understanding that could allow NextEra to collocate its transmission lines onto 14 miles of city-owned utility poles to be voted on at a later date. Richardson and Matlow said their final approval would be contingent on the final route not being on Tram Road.

Mayor John Dailey recused himself from discussions and the vote due to a perceived conflict of interest. His wife’s law firm recently completed a project in South Florida with Florida Power and Light.

Last week, Dailey told the Tallahassee Democrat he fully supported the plan by NextEra, which owns FPL and Gulf Power, to collocate within the city.

The 161-kilowatt, 176-mile proposed high-power transmission line project would connect an FPL substation outside of Lake City to a Gulf Power substation near Marianna.

To do so, the company’s desired route cuts through rural Gadsden, Leon and Jefferson counties. From the east, it would run down Interstate 10, before turning south on Waukeena Highway through Wacissa and along Tram Road.

More:Trace the 176-mile path of the proposed power line project that includes 7 rural counties

After passing through an existing utility corridor in south Tallahassee, the proposed line would run through the Apalachicola National Forest before linking back with I-10 near Midway.

Commissioner Diane Williams Cox pressured Bryant to explain whether routes were being considered that don’t cut through the rural portions of Leon and Jefferson counties, including the I-10 corridor.

She seemed dissatisfied with Bryant’s repeated answer that the route had not been finalized and others were being considered.

“My unreadiness is we don’t have a final route. I’m a little concerned about voting for something that’s general,” she said comparing the project to Jell-O. “It’s shaky.”

Williams-Cox said she also had concerns about not entering into an MOU with NextEra, which has been quietly working at surveying and offering to buy properties within the county that could pose an issue for the project.

“If we stand down and they’re out there doing their own thing without supervision, something else could happen that is more devastating,” she said. “If we're not involved, while you’re working on your alternate routes and we can’t negotiate and talk with them, then were operating in the blind. They're not going away.”

County to demand answers

Wednesday’s city meeting followed a discussion at the Leon County Commission the previous day that centered around pushing the utility giant for answers. The project was only brought to city and county officials in February.

Leon County officials are demanding more information about the high-power transmission line project. At their meeting Tuesday, County Commissioners voted to pressure NextEra Energy into providing more details about the seven-county power line project.

Leon County Commissioner Kristin Dozier expressed dismay that city officials, who have entered into a confidentiality agreement with NextEra to avoid the release of general trade secrets, provided few details of their conversations about the project they stand to benefit from.

“I am very disappointed that the city didn’t work with our staff more and at least provide information they were gathering from the company,” she said. “We have really been left out of this puzzle.”

Serious conversations with NextEra and the city started Feb. 20, when Tallahassee Electric Utility General Manager Rob McGarrah was part of a conference call with officials from FPL and Gulf Power.

City Manager Reese Goad sent an email to County Administrator Vince Long two days after learning basic details of the project.

The information sent to Long included "talking points" provided by NextEra officials. It was shared with Dozier the next day.

Following the Wednesday City Commission meeting, Dozier said she was “heartened” by the city’s willingness to cooperate with the county to make sure residents’ concerns be placed front and center.

“We made a lot of progress this week standing firm as a community that Tram Road is not the best option for this transmission line,” she said Thursday.

She met with NextEra officials on Feb. 25 at which point there was little discussion about alternate routes. She was surprised to hear Bryant say the company was considering other options, and concerned by his comments about moving forward regardless of city cooperation.

“I thought that was very telling that they were saying ‘this could potentially be worse for you if you don’t agree to collocate the lines,’” she said.

County Commissioner Mary Ann Lindley said the county's communication with NextEra should be sharply worded and demand answers.

“The citizens are extremely unhappy from the bullying, the lack of information, the heavy handedness from this firm, this company,” she said. “I think it should be a clearer and firmer expression of serious concern ... more than just 'why did you do this?' I think we could articulate several very serious concerns and say we would like to see other routes offered and stand ready to help facilitate that.”

At Wednesday's City Commission meeting, citizens pointed to the degradation of the rural feel of Tram Road and the surrounding communities, the project's affect on property values and environmental concerns.

“I 100% agree this is not a route that should be taken,” said Jerry Deloney, who lives on Tram Road. “It's shameful you’re even considering this in light of the millions of dollars spent on cleaning up Wakulla Springs and other areas.”

Sean McGlynn, a scientist with the Wakulla Springs Alliance, said the environmental impact of running the power lines through such a sensitive environmental corridor – including the “heart of Wakulla Springs,” Munson Slough, could be detrimental.

He pointed to $280 million put into cleaning up the city's spray fields south of Tram Road in the mid-2000s and how down-stream Wakulla Springs has become the crown jewel of recovery efforts.

“They’re going through the most sensitive area in the spring shed, through Wakulla Springs, the Wacissa and St. Marks,” he said. “There’s no reason they couldn’t go down I-10.”

Contact Karl Etters at ketters@tallahassee.com or @KarlEtters on Twitter