Park and airstrip are both in the plans of Homer and Anchorage developers Louise and Charles Tulin, the property owners building what they're calling Diamond Creek Air Park on what's now known as Skyline Heights Estates. They see their development as a prestige, high-end project.

"We're trying to make it park like," Louise Tulin said. "It's our goal to make it really first class."

Out of the project could come more preserved open space for the area that includes the Baycrest Ski Trails. Land set aside for conservation, such as the Homer Demonstration Forest, borders the subdivision to the southeast, and could be expanded in the Diamond Creek area. The Tulins are in negotiation with local environmental organizations to sell 115 acres of their subdivision for preservation as open space.

Roberta Highland, a board member of the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, said she has been talking to the Tulins, and hopes to use forest legacy money to purchase the land. The Tulins said they're willing to sell their property at below market value. The borough assesses a 4.77-acre lot in the north end of the subdivision at about $30,000 each.

About a dozen Diamond Ridge residents met last weekend to discuss their concerns and to consider what they could do to stop future airstrips. The size and scope of Diamond Creek Air Park surprised them, said Stephanie Zuniga, who lives about a half mile from the east end of the airstrip.

"Most people thought we were talking about a private owner wanting to land their Super Cub on their small strip," she said. "Once the snow melted and people were able to get down there and check it out, they realized this thing was huge. It cut a swath that looks more like a commercial airstrip."

Charles Tulin compared their project to air parks in Palmer or Gig Harbor, Wash. developments where aircraft owners can build hangars and nice homes and taxi out to a nearby runway.

"It can be sedate. It can be beautiful," he said. "They're an attraction. They're good looking, like a park."

Contractor Joe Super began hauling gravel this spring for the airstrip. A line of fill several hundred yards stretches from off Cirrostratus Loop, an old subdivision road on the north side of the airstrip. At the west end of it, and right over the flight path running west toward the highway, a modest home lies just beyond the strip near a large cleared lot.

The Tulins said they have all the necessary state and federal permits to build the strip, such as U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits to fill wetlands.

Outside of the Homer city limits, Diamond Creek Air Park is in an unregulated area of the Kenai Peninsula Borough. To build their airstrip down the middle of 16 lots, the Tulins had to vacate several road rights-of-way in the subdivision. The borough planning commission approved a vacation of those easements and a replat last August. Borough code doesn't prohibit airstrips in unregulated areas. The borough assembly did not veto the easement vacation.

Vi Jerrel, whose family owns a homestead just south of the Tulins' subdivision, was the only person to speak against the replat and easement vacation. The airpark would be "injurious and detrimental to surrounding property owners," Jerrel said. "It is requested that the airpark, airstrip be denied for safety reasons in traffic and area safety."

Jerrel also had concerns about access to her property, which would be through Cirrostratus Loop. The two vacated north-south roads, Nimbus Road and Cumulus Road, would connect Cirrostratus Loop to the Jerrel Subdivision, but those roads were never built.

At the Diamond Ridge neighborhood meeting last weekend, residents spoke about noise and other concerns, Zuniga said. The south-facing slope of Diamond Ridge creates a natural amphitheater and would amplify sound. Planes would fly over moose, brown bear and black bear habitat, as well as sandhill crane nesting areas. People also were concerned about runoff from fill into wetlands.

Unlike public or Federal Aviation Administration regulated airstrips, Diamond Creek Air Park doesn't fall under FAA authority. Aircraft taking off and landing from the strip fall under the jurisdiction of the Homer Airport tower if the strip is within 5 miles, said FAA spokesman Mike Fergus. Aircraft also have to fly certain distances from nearby communications towers, such as a 123-foot tower at the top of Diamond Ridge owned by Peninsula Communications. A rough calculation using Google Earth shows the east end of the strip is about 5.8 miles to the Homer Airport and 5 miles to the Beluga Lake Floatplane Airport.

Tulin said the approach to Diamond Creek Air Park would be over the Diamond Creek valley. Aircraft flying in from the north would avoid the Peninsula Communications tower, drop down below the southern end of Rucksack Drive, and then come in on an east-west approach to the strip. Depending on winds, planes might take off over the Sterling Highway to the west. Along with communications towers, other hazards in the area include power lines, trees, and eagles, gulls and ravens feeding at the Kenai Peninsula Borough baling facility on the Sterling Highway.

The FAA also doesn't regulate other uses that could impact a private airstrip. If a nearby landowner put up a communications tower that obstructed the flight path of Diamond Creek Air Park, the Tulins might be out of luck, Fergus said.

The issue of private airstrips in unregulated areas of the state has prompted the FAA to offer grants to local governments to study the situation. The grants would help governments identify and locate existing private airstrips and come up with land-use regulations if there are conflicts.

"That's what I would be shooting for: Is it a problem?" said Max Best, borough planning director. "Do we need to take care of it now?"

The borough doesn't have any regulations in place for airstrips, Best said.

"That's what we need," said borough assemblywoman Milli Martin, who represents the Diamond Ridge area. "The way it is right now, there's nothing we can do."

"We bought into this place thinking it was residential, and there's no control as to what's coming," Zuniga said. "We have an airport about nine (road) miles away. Why do we need another airport here in a residential community?" she added.

Martin encouraged borough landowners living in unregulated areas who want more control over their neighborhoods to pursue local option zoning. She said many people don't know they can get together with neighbors and create a local zoning district to protect their property.

"People, either they're not aware of it, or they just don't bother to go for that," Martin said. "The local option is a way for neighbors to protect themselves."

The Tulins said they don't have a timeline for finishing the project. Most of the clearing has been done, but they haven't done a final plat determining the exact lot sizes. Utilities still have to be put in.

"This is just one of our many projects," Louise Tulin said. "We're just sort of moseying through."

Michael Armstrong can be reached at michael.armstrong@homernews.com.