Oncor Electric Delivery is seeking landowners’ approval to survey the properties that new 345-kilovolt electric transmission lines will cross in Lampasas, Mills, Brown and Bell counties.

Oncor, which last month obtained Public Utilities Commission approval for two renewable energy transmission routes, recently hosted a meeting with landowners at the former Lampasas Middle School cafeteria. At the meeting, the 75 property owners who attended were assigned right of way agents to work with them during the surveying and construction process.

Agents provide a “personal point of contact” for landowners throughout the surveying and line siting process, Oncor spokeswoman Catherine Cuellar said. Agents can help address landowner questions and concerns about transmission line-related subjects ranging from construction to environmental effects, Ms. Cuellar said.

At the recent meeting, Oncor officials emphasized that many agricultural and recreational land uses — including hunting, fishing, growing crops and raising livestock — are permitted within transmission easements. Homes, barns and other permanent structures may not be built inside the electric line easements, however. Workers may have to remove trees to keep them from interfering with power lines, Oncor representative David McCarthy said.

Property owners should not worry about transmission lines passing over their homes, Ms. Cuellar added.

“We can’t build over a house,” the spokeswoman said. “We have to have clearance for the lines.”

To locate wildlife habitats before constructing lines, Oncor officials perform ecological assessments after completing property surveys. Officials use the ecological study results to try to avoid habitats, Oncor environmental specialist Ray Averitt said. For example, because lattice towers can be spaced about 1,000 feet apart — and smaller monopole towers can be 750 to 850 feet apart — Averitt said it often is possible to put transmission structures at the edges of waterways without putting towers directly in lakes, rivers and creeks.

Most property owners’ environmental concerns, Averitt said, have related to birds, particularly the black capped vireo.

By cooperating with landowners, Oncor historically has reached agreements about transmission lines without having to go to court, Ms. Cuellar said. As of Tuesday, about 55 percent of the landowners whose properties are along the Brown-to-Newton or Newton-to-Killeen routes had signed agreements to allow Oncor officials to survey their property, she added.

“The meetings were just the beginning of the process, so we expect we’ll get all the permission we need going forward,” Ms. Cuellar said.

Some property owners, however, plan to hire legal counsel before signing land access or compensation agreements with utility officials.

“We’re going to go with a lawyer on the deal,” said John Gist, who will see transmission lines on family land near Lometa. “I think it’s a risky deal to sign anything ... without going to an attorney who specializes in eminent domain.”

Property owners who plan to seek a special commissioners court or district court ruling about damages they should receive need to act quickly, said attorney Richard Hammett.

A knowledgeable attorney can help evaluate the nearly 20 factors that determine what compensation a property owner receives, said Hammett, whose 35 years of eminent domain experience includes representation of individual landowners, a major municipality and a pipeline company.

“If you hire a lawyer ... on where to put the line, what kind of line to use and the damages you receive, more likely than not you will benefit,” Hammett said. “If you do not, a landowner will never know with certainty whether they’ve received fair and just compensation.”

At the recent landowner meeting, Oncor officials said property owners receive fair compensation for damages caused to their lands by utility easements. Immediately after construction, workers begin restoring property to “as good or better condition” as it was before electric lines were built, Oncor representative Garland Black said.

Restoration work includes cleaning rights of way, compensating for crop damage and reseeding affected pastures with a blend of native grasses, Black said.

No matter how much effort a company expends, though, Hammett said, a property with transmission lines on it never will be the same as it was before construction — particularly in terms of development value.

“There’s a certain segment of the knowledgeable buying public that will not buy a property that is affected by transmission lines,” he said.

Hiring counsel and seeking redress in court, Hammett said, especially can help when a landowner hopes to receive a higher damage payment than what a utility company offers. Theories of property damage vary, the attorney said, from a “corridor” view that mostly considers the effects on easements and the areas immediately surrounding them to a view that often considers an entire property at least partially “damaged” in value.

The parties to a land compensation discussion, Hammett said, will use the theory that best protects their interests. For that reason, he believes landowners shouldn’t necessarily accept the first offer they receive.

“I’m not saying the people who work for LCRA [Lower Colorado River Authority, which also is planning transmission lines through Lampasas County] or Oncor are bad people,” he said. “They just have their duties and their own interests to represent, and landowners should never forget that. They really should talk to a lawyer before they give survey permission.”