An equestrian subdivision and a 500,000-volt power line just don't mix.

And, somewhat belatedly, Idaho Power Co. appears to have gotten the message. Company officials have redrawn the maps for the transmission line. At this point, none of their possible routes run near Parma.

Score one, for the time being, for a small-town mayor who raised a big-time and much-justified ruckus. When Parma Mayor Margie Watson got word about Idaho Power's plans, she got angry and her community of 1,800 people got organized.

Locals quickly posted a Web site and started raising money for a potential legal and public relations battle. Luckily, Parma residents have logic on their side.

The power line would cut through the site of a proposed 800-acre subdivision that would feature large lots, equestrian areas and riverside home sites. The line would also intersect the flight path for the city airport and border waterfowl habitat at the state's Fort Boise Wildlife Management Area. Standing at 1,200- to 1,500-foot intervals, the line's 190-foot-tall towers would dwarf the city's 101-foot-tall water tower.

Watson wonders how Idaho Power could plan a route near Parma. "How do you forget a city?" she asked recently.

Idaho Power probably won't forget Watson any time soon. "We could have been more diligent," said Douglas Dockter, an engineering leader for the utility.

The power line siting issue doesn't just involve Parma. Idaho Power is looking to build a 300-mile transmission line linking a substation in Boardman, Ore., to the Hemingway substation near Murphy. Eventually, the utility plans to add another 1,150 miles of line from Hemingway to a Wyoming substation.

These projects are needed to ship power not just within Idaho Power's service area, but throughout the region. For instance, the larger, 500,000-volt lines would more easily bring in electricity during the summer, when power demand peaks.

The Parma debate is a cautionary tale for the Northwest, a region that will need more transmission lines to meet future power demand. If this flap illustrates anything, it shows the complexity of devising a route.

Watson criticizes Idaho Power for developing a route that would largely traverse private lands. Idaho Power says it wouldn't be feasible or cost-effective to build solely on public lands, while skirting around the Oregon Trail, sage grouse nesting sites and big game wintering and calving areas.

And Idaho Power cannot rule out building within Parma's "area of impact," lands that could someday be developed and annexed into the city. Idaho Power tries to avoid putting lines in impact areas, Dockter said, but the utility also must make sure that a detour around Parma doesn't create other problems elsewhere on the route.

Idaho Power will work on Boardman-to-Hemingway power line permits until December 2011. The utility got an early head's up about Parma, Dockter said, and that shows the process works.

The process will really work if Idaho Power bypasses Parma.

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