“Based on the letter received, all work on the Country Club Estates job has ceased,” said Joe Gallagher, an HEA spokesman.

Except for staking, HEA had not started work in Judy Rebecca Court. It had done some trenching on private property in Country Club Estates.

Residents in the Baycrest Subdivision raised concerns about the power project last month when they learned HEA planned to cut alders on Judy Rebecca Court to put in a single power pole and string power transmission lines across the ravine to Country Club Estates.

The residents formed a group, the Baycrest Subdivision Neighborhood Alliance, to fight the project. The alliance said construction would increase the risk of erosion in the bluff-side subdivision as well as harm views. It appealed to the Homer City Council, the city and the Kenai Peninsula Borough.

“We’re just ecstatic that the city and the borough have responded to our pleas to look into this,” said DeWaine Tollefsrud, a homeowner whose home above Judy Rebecca Court would have been affected by the project.

Wrede said the possibility of erosion caused by work in Judy Rebecca Court wasn’t the main issue. The city was more concerned about police and fire department access, increased development and environmental issues.

“What really turned the tables for me was thinking about the implications, the longer, broader implications of extending the power line,” Wrede said.

Wrede cited those concerns in his letter to HEA.

“The simple extension of this electric line has become a much broader community development and environmental protection issue than either HEA or the city envisioned when this permit was originally discussed,” Wrede wrote. “The extension of electric power into the Country Club Estates has the potential to stimulate more development there that poses a high risk to public health and safety before proper planning and regulatory review can take place.”

In 1978, Country Club Estates was platted into four tracts on about 100 acres of bluff property below the Baycrest Hill viewpoint on the Sterling Highway. In November 1998, the borough planning commission granted a plat waiver to Michael Bullock and Baycrest Investment Corporation to divide one 70-acre tract into three smaller lots. The borough planning commission granted a waiver over the objection of the borough planning staff. The primary access would be from the beach. Bullock said a construction access road would be built. There is now a steep driveway from Rene Court going down to the Country Club Estates lots.

Wrede wrote that this driveway is unsafe and could be causing erosion on adjacent properties. It also doesn’t meet International Fire Code standards.

“The level to which the city can provide fire and emergency medical services to the area is limited at best,” he wrote.

The Homer Volunteer Fire Department might be able to get a brush truck down the road, but not a tanker, Wrede said.

The driveway goes through property owned by Bryan Zak off Rene Court. Zak’s lot is in Country Club Estates, and it came with a road easement granted to the Country Club Estates Homeowner’s Association when he bought it, Zak said.

Zak also raised concerns about the road’s safety.

“I’ve looked at it and said, ‘unsafe, unstable,’” he said.

Zak said he told HEA it couldn’t use the road for access to Country Club Estates because of his concerns about the road’s safety. The original scope of the easement was for three lots, Zak said. Since the easement was granted, another lot in Country Club Estates was subdivided into three lots in 2004.

More lots have been proposed, Wrede said. However, since the project’s surveyor, Jerry Anderson, refuses to pay city plat review fees, the city won’t consider plats submitted by Anderson. The existing road couldn’t handle more traffic anyway, Wrede said.

Allowing HEA to bring in more power along a city street would stimulate more development that could pose a high risk to public health and safety, Wrede said.

“It would not be in the public interest for (the city) to allow use of its right of way for the proposed electrical extension, and thereby indirectly condoning or facilitating increased development in this area,” he wrote.

HEA, Country Club Estates and Baycrest Subdivision neighbors had discussed an alternate route through Zak’s property, Gallagher said. That route didn’t work out after Zak’s concerns about liability were not resolved. Gallagher said he did not know if that route could now be used.

Zak said he’s willing to discuss that alternate route with his Country Club Estates neighbors.

“I want to see things work out for all of us and let us all be good neighbors,” Zak said. “Let’s just make sure everybody’s doing things right before we cause a problem that can’t be fixed.”

Under HEA’s tariff, it pays 60 percent of the cost of new power line construction to members. Citing customer privacy, Gallagher would not reveal how much HEA or the members had contracted to pay for new construction. He also did not know if the members would be charged for work done on private land.

“It put us in a rather awkward spot,” Gallagher said. “We’re stepping back and seeing where we stand legally with this.”

Gallagher identified Larry Peek of Homer as the HEA member who put in the request for power on behalf of himself and other Country Club Estates landowners. Peek and other Country Club Estates landowners identified by borough records did not return phone calls by press time requesting comment.