Chugach Electric substation rebuild draws the ire of South Anchorage community members (2024)

Published: Jan. 18, 2024 at 11:18 PM AKST

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - The rebuild of Chugach Electric’s aging southside substation would significantly change the views of a four-way stop in South Anchorage, according to residents of the Bayshore-Klatt Community Council.

The proposed substation includes the raising of a nearly 65-foot communications tower to the corner of 100th Avenue and Southport Drive. This detail and others were hashed out with Chugach Electric representatives at the community council’s meeting on Thursday night at the Bayshore Clubhouse. In recent months, the proposal has elicited major opposition from many in the Bayshore-Klatt area.

After presenting background information on the substation to a packed audience, Chugach Electric spent time answering some of the community’s questions. While the utility did not have all of the answers, they said they would look further into some things.

One point of contention was the rendering of the new substation that portrays the new communications tower as almost level with a 24-foot light pole.

“Where did these come from? Because we knew immediately that they did not represent the true, accurate picture of how high [the tower would be],” said Margaret Louie, a resident in the area. “That’s six and a half stories, there’s no way that you can tell anyone that what you show there is six and a half stories.”

Another person in attendance, Marcus Reed, questioned if the tower needed to be 65 feet in the first place.

“What is the minimal height of that tower to get everything you need for connectivity, data connection — everything?” Reed said.

One woman, who lived in the area for five years, said the proposed substation would not bother her and wondered why it bothered so many others.

“I’m very curious and I’m not trying to be one of those people, but I’m very curious about how many of you will actually notice this on a regular, daily basis?” asked the community member.

Before the meeting, Julie Hasquet, the communications manager for Chugach Electric, said the rebuild is needed to replace 1980s technology.

“As the load has grown, as the neighborhood has grown, as communications have gotten more sophisticated, it’s time to upgrade that substation and make it so we can continue to provide safe, secure and reliable power to our members,” Hasquet said.

Hasquet mentioned they will have to cut down some trees, but are keeping in mind the aesthetics of other neighborhood fixtures.

“There will be a few changes to the landscaping, but we are committed to doing a nice landscaping job as we do anytime we’re upgrading a substation and the wall will be aesthetically similar to other areas in the neighborhood such as the fire station and the school,” Hasquet said.

Bruce Schulte, the president of the Bayshore-Klatt Community Council, said he hasn’t been happy with what he perceives is a lack of transparency and communication on Chugach’s part.

In front of the current substation stands tall evergreen trees, but a couple of them have already been removed, a change Schulte believes lacked approval and is inconsistent with the original permit under which the facility was built.

“Now they’re proposing to remove the rest of those trees and put up a 9-foot concrete block wall with barbed wire off it,” Schulte said. “That’s where people are starting to get a little bit concerned because Southport is kind of an unusual community, the community spends a lot of money every year to maintain the landscaping ... and yet now we have Chugach who wants to build essentially a concrete bunker, in an industrial zone, right at our front door.”

Schulte maintains Chugach Electric hasn’t shown much interest in working with the community. He mentioned Chugach Electric has come to several community council meetings, with them receiving some major pushback with the proposal.

Still, Schulte believes the community never had a chance to weigh in due to Chugach Electric never bringing the full plans to a council meeting, even though it was requested.

“They just finished their plans and submitted them to the municipality and then, to add insult to injury, on their application, they told the municipality that the community had no feedback,” Schulte said.

Hasquet, on the other hand, maintains Chugach Electric has been engaged throughout the process of bringing the proposal to fruition.

“We’ve been to community council multiple times,” Hasquet said. “We went through the process with the Planning and Zoning Commission and got unanimous approval of our conditional use permit so we’ve been very engaged with the public and have attempted many times to answer their questions, we’re continuing to want to answer their questions.”

The Municipality of Anchorage’s Planning and Zoning Commission already approved the conditional use permits for the tower and other work, but those permits were later the target of an appeal by the Southport Master Association.

Hasquet was unable to answer some questions due to the ongoing litigation between both parties.

Chugach had hoped construction to begin in May and wrap up the following year.

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