Hawaiian Electric and developer D.R. Horton temporarily stopped construction of dozens of overhead power lines in East Kapolei after concerns were raised by nearby residents.

The utility is about 30% finished with the Kulanihakoi Substation Project, which is meant to provide additional electricity to the Ho‘opili area, where residential and commercial development by D.R. Horton is ongoing.

A couple of weeks ago, Ho‘opili residents, after noticing poles being installed for overhead lines, began calling for the transmission lines to be placed underground. Bases of steel poles for the project’s overhead lines can be seen on sidewalks only a few feet from nearby properties.

Homeowner Russell Tupinio told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser the worries started “when they started to do construction behind our homes.”

“I thought everything was supposed to be buried underground,” he said.

The concerns were brought up in a neighborhood Facebook group, where other residents said they too were concerned about the project. So far more than 550 people have signed a petition to stop construction of the power lines.

On Friday, residents were notified by Hawaiian Electric that it has paused the project’s overhead work to work out any community issues.

Hawaiian Electric and D.R. Horton held an informational meeting Monday night for residents at the SoHo Community Center. About 100 people attended, and none of them said they were aware that any public hearings had been held on the project.

Residents said there was a lack of public outreach by the utility and the developer, and also expressed worries about possible safety issues and negative effects on home values.

Kaniela Ing, a homeowner who has helped lead residents in the campaign to move the project underground, said they were told the power lines would be placed underground.

“Keep your promise. You said it was going to be underground … when you sold us the homes,” he told the Star-Advertiser. “The second point is to bury the lines — it’s better. Aesthetics matter. It’s going to lower your property values.”

D.R. Horton and Hawaiian Electric said public hearings were held and that the promised underground lines applied to a different type of power line.

Both D.R. Horton and residents referenced an environmental impact statement for development plans in the area that said “primary and secondary distribution lines serving the Ho‘opili project will be placed underground to reduce visual impacts.”

State Sen. Kurt Fevella (R, Ewa Beach-Iroquois Point) attended Monday’s meeting and asked whether there was any way the power lines could be placed underground.

“It’s a tough question, and we don’t have many options to underground,” replied Tracy Tonaki of D.R. Horton during the meeting. “If it doesn’t get built, then we don’t build more homes here in Ho‘opili, and you don’t have resiliency and redundancy.”

The project, which costs about $15.9 million for construction and installation, includes transmission lines above and below ground as well as a substation on Kulanihakoi Street.

Hawaiian Electric said in an application for the project filed with the Public Utilities Commission that overhead lines would be the cheapest way to prevent electricity overloads.

The estimated cost for the construction of the overhead lines is about $6.7 million, and putting the lines underground would cost about $25.1 million, the utility said — an added cost D.R. Horton in a letter said it was “not interested” in paying.

The area already has overhead transmission lines, Hawaiian Electric noted in the project application, so “the visual impact will not be significantly changed and the benefits of undergrounding, if any, do not outweigh the costs.”

Tupinio said the existing overhead transmission lines are not near homes.

“It’s away from the homes. Now, when you’re coming into the community, that’s a different story,” he said.

For many homes in the area, the only nearby transmission lines appear to be those along Kualakai Parkway, which are about 200 feet from the closest homes but much farther from most others.