CenterPoint reclaiming property from homeowners

06:17 PM CST on Tuesday, December 7, 2004

By Amy Tortolani / 11 News

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It's actually becoming a reality as CenterPoint energy begins taking back easement property from homeowners, or as the company words it, "re-claiming" the utility right-of-way.

What it means is that residents are losing ground in their back yards.

KHOU-TV

A fence goes up in a back yard as CenterPoint Energy reclaims easement property from landowners.

You may be next. Progress is the name of safety, according to CenterPoint Energy. But the sounds hammering and sawing have a different meaning to some Twin Hills neighbors.

"Very unhappy about it," says resident Morris Randle.

A few months ago, CenterPoint Energy told homeowners throughout the Houston area that it would begin taking back the right of way by moving fences back to the original property line.

They started in this southwest Houston neighborhood, in the 7800 block of Twin Hills.

"It is absolutely about safety and reliability," says Emily Mir Thompson of CenterPoint Energy.

Morris Randle isn't so sure. He says the new fence being put in splits two sets of power lines. It's the placement of the fence that concerns him.

"Moving my fence back does not eliminate a safety problem. The one directly through my property, I have no right to tell them to move it and according to them, it still creates a safety issue," he says.

But CenterPoint Energy says it is following national guidelines.

"The new fences we are building, we have surveyed the area. One, they are no longer in the right of way. Two, they are the appropriate distance from both the transmission and distribution lines according to the National Electric safety code," says Thompson.

According to Mr. Randle, enforcing the codes now, after many were given permission to build out onto the right of way, could end up pushing homeowners away.

"We are now considering selling the house and moving to another location," he says.

CenterPoint Energy says homeowners across the Houston area who have built out onto the right of way will have to move back to the original property line.

CenterPoint says it will seek legal action for those who don't make the move.