Coming to Terms with Power Lines

Though infrastructure planning and provision often unsettle homeowners and communities, facilitating research has been sporadic. Via a qualitative design, this article studies homeowners’ perceptions of high-voltage overhead transmission lines (HVOTLs) with respect of design, cost differentials, health effects, safety issues, visual and noise impacts, environmental damage and interference with property rights. The results support inductive modelling which situates and theorizes the risk associated with power line placement. Apart from informing power and planning agencies, the project acts as a foundation for later quantitative work undertaken to enlarge explanation of residents’ reactions to HVOTL proposals.