A tree-lined, wandering creek just east of Muldoon Road near the intersection of DeBarr is turning into a battleground for east-side residents.

Many of them are fighting for Chester Creek to be left alone. They oppose even creek work that government officials say is just to ease fish passage under DeBarr Road. They fear that the creek work would be a step toward other development -- a big road, or maybe a strip mall.

"The city is using the thing for creek enhancement, when in reality it's because they want to punch through DeBarr Road," which dead-ends at Muldoon, said Ainslie Phillips, a Northeast Community Council officer. "The city is still saying there is no intention to put DeBarr Road through. However, it shows up everywhere," Phillips said. For example, it appears on maps outlining proposals for connecting the Glenn and Seward highways, she said.

The community council is hosting a rally at 11 a.m. today at the creek east of Muldoon to show support for their idea: creating a Muldoon Park Strip encompassing the entire 29 acres of woods, clearing, creek and large beaver pond the city owns in that spot.

The fight of Muldoon residents to preserve this strip of land is yet another sign of conflict over a diminishing supply of raw land in the Anchorage Bowl.

Council board member Stuart Grenier said he created the Muldoon Park Strip idea because there's so much housing going into the neighborhood.

"I live in a six-plex. They've built 70 units within an arrow-shot from my house in the past year," he said.

"More and more people are moving out here to low-income housing," said council president Ron Rivas. "There's just no place for them to go. ... No place for them to have any beauty at all."

GREENHOUSE AND DRUG DEALERS

The deep, narrow city-owned parcel stretches from Muldoon Road east to the edge of town -- to the military reservation at the foot of the Chugach Mountains. The back 12 acres of it is already set aside for a park. If money becomes available, the plan is to put in some ball fields, said Phillips.

The rest of the property is zoned for commercial development and housing, giving rise to residents' concerns.

The land has a history with almost as many twists and turns as the creek itself.

Alaska Greenhouse sat on the property along Muldoon Road for many years. Back in the 1950s, owner Mann Leiser moved a piece of Chester Creek so that it flowed right through a greenhouse, said Phillips, noting that it was a popular place for weddings.

Later, the property was bought by Tom Cody and Joe Bryant, who were alleged to be drug smugglers. The federal government seized the 29 acres as part of its drug-dealing investigation. Meantime, Cody disappeared in 2005, and his burned vehicle turned up in a remote part of the Valley. And Bryant committed suicide in 2006.

Late in 2006, the U.S. attorney's office agreed to let the city buy the whole 29 acres for $5 million. To do that, the city had to borrow $3.5 million from the Municipal Light & Power Co., the city-owned electric company.

At the time, then-city real estate director Robin Ward set expectations for the property: The eastern section would be a park, and the city would eventually sell portions of the land west of that. The city could extend DeBarr along the north side of the property, she said. And it would restore Chester Creek closer to its original alignment.

Except for establishing a 12-acre park, none of that has come to pass.

SWAPPING PARK LAND?

But now, the city, with other government agencies, is trying to get permits to relocate a stretch of Chester Creek next to Muldoon Road. They want to move it away from the DeBarr-Muldoon intersection, said Bill Rice, engineer and hydrologist for the federal Fish and Wildlife Service. The culvert under DeBarr Road doesn't work well -- some fish don't get through it, he said. In addition, the intersection gets salted and sanded in winter, and that material is not good for the creek, he said. Plus, a heavily trafficked intersection is just not a good place to have to maintain a culvert for a stream, he said.

Enough Northeast Community Council members are so concerned about the creek realignment leading to unwanted developments, though, that the council voted Thursday to oppose the city's effort to re-plat the property, a step necessary before the Chester Creek course change can move ahead.

Meantime, there's another angle brewing that could ultimately support residents' desire for a Muldoon Park Strip -- but at a cost.

The city still owes Municipal Light & Power $3.5 million for the purchase of the property at Muldoon and DeBarr, and is paying around $20,000 per month in interest on the loan, said ML&P director Jim Posey. The city wants to quit paying. So the two parties are exploring a deal in which the entire Muldoon-DeBarr parcel would become park, and ML&P would get a piece of another Muldoon park, Centennial, in exchange. Centennial is next to a power plant and land there could be used to expand the plant.

That would be a complicated deal requiring approval of numerous entities, Posey said. And some residents, such as Grenier, will likely balk at the notion of giving up a piece of one park to make another.

But the idea has at least one thing going for it: Posey, a former city parks director, agrees with the Muldoon Park Strip idea. "I believe in the Northeast Community Council," he said. "I'm not interested in punching the road through. ... All of that land needs to go for a park."