In the shadow of a roughly 100-foot-tall high-voltage transmission line, two queen palm trees stand in one subdivision where a vocal minority of homeowners pushed back against plans for a new electric substation — and won.  

About one-third of the neighbors of the Meadow Ridge subdivision, which has a homeowners’ association or HOA, signed a petition against a zoning variance for the project and lobbied McAllen city commissioners to reject the proposal from AEP Texas in August, despite being approved by the city’s Planning and Zoning Board and city administrators over the summer. 

McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos and his fellow officials dismissed the project after a group of spirited neighbors spoke against it during a public hearing, where commissioners chimed in with alternative properties further away from subdivisions. 

But that might require American Electric Power Texas to expand its transmission lines, which means paying property owners for more right-of-way easements, then building the lines before adding a substation – a process that could take years.