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LUFKIN \u2014 Lufkin residents spoke out at Tuesday night\u2019s city council meeting, successfully blocking a proposed replacement electric substation from being built near their neighborhoods.<\/p>\nLUFKIN \u2014 Lufkin residents spoke out at Tuesday night\u2019s city council meeting, successfully blocking a proposed replacement electric substation from being built near their neighborhoods.<\/p>\n
Following more than an hour of public comment, the Lufkin City Council voted 6\u20131 to deny a special permit that would have allowed Oncor to build a replacement substation on Brentwood Drive, adjacent to the existing facility. The site is near apartment complexes, Anderson Elementary School and the Crown Colony neighborhood.<\/p>\n
Lufkin Fire Chief Scott Moody told council members the proposed substation would not pose a safety risk, noting it would use mineral oil for cooling instead of traditional fluids.<\/p>\n
Oncor representatives argued the replacement is necessary to keep up with Lufkin\u2019s growth. Attorney Jaren Taylor said the existing substation is expected to reach 117% of its capacity by this summer, limiting the system\u2019s ability to provide backup power during peak demand.<\/p>\n
In a statement to our news partner KETK, Oncor said it values community feedback but believes the project is critical.<\/p>\n
\u201cOncor values the feedback of local residents and we have strived to answer questions and explain the importance of replacing the aging substation. Replacing the current substation, which has safely served this area since the 1960s, with a new, modernized substation is essential for meeting local growth needs and continuing to reliably serve our Lufkin customers. While we appreciate the Lufkin City Council\u2019s consideration, we will now begin the process of appealing the council\u2019s decision to the Public Utility Commission of Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n
The appeal could still allow the substation to move forward at the state level.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
LUFKIN \u2014 Lufkin residents spoke out at Tuesday night\u2019s city council meeting, successfully blocking a proposed replacement electric substation from being built near their neighborhoods. Following more than an hour of public comment, the Lufkin City Council voted 6\u20131 to deny a special permit that would have allowed Oncor to build a replacement substation on … Continue reading Council denies special permit for Oncor<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1478075,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/02\/2026-02-05_025409-201x200.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1477818","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-07 03:23:35","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2026\/02\/2026-02-05_025409-201x200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477818","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1477818"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477818\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1478740,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477818\/revisions\/1478740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1478075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1477818"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1477818"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1477818"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}