Evidence starts as soon as you see the lights of the Palmer Hay Flats. No longer can the Valley be viewed as the unpopulated country cousin to the big city of Anchorage. Our road improvements alone, with the new overpasses and frontage roads, offer proof that people have discovered Mat-Su.
With the explosion of growth comes a need to plan for our future. According to Matanuska Electric Assoc., 2002 saw some 1,900 new service requests. People are being drawn to the area. Home lots are bigger and less expensive than in Anchorage. Natural gas is available in many areas making it cheaper to heat our homes. Enstar now has about 15,000 customers. Road improvements have lessened the commute time into Anchorage. Lights along the roadway make the drive less stressful and perhaps safer.
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Communities found in the Valley offer a variety of lifestyles, each with a unique sense of place. The "uniqueness" of a place can be a very valuable economic draw. But we must be careful not to lose those unique qualities to rapid cookie-cutter, sprawling, unplanned development. That rapid-fire cookie-cutter approach has proven over and over to provide short-term benefits to the developers and long-term costs to the community.
Luckily, 2002 saw not only visible change in the local landscape from all the growth, it also saw a definite shift in the understanding of what rapid growth is doing to the quality of our daily lives. 2002 saw a change in the willingness of people to take proactive steps to avoid some of the more negative impacts from development. There is much more acceptance in the Valley of the need to plan our communities than there was 10 years ago, simply because there is now more need to plan.
2003 promises to continue this shift toward planning our growth. Many different people are coming together in attempts to keep their communities from becoming "Anywhere USA." Talkeetna is completing a lengthy community-led process. The people who live there are defining what they want to see tourism do for them rather than accepting what tourism does to them. Standards are being set that will ensure the growth benefits the community rather than detracts from it. The community council, chamber of commerce and residents of the area will speak to the Mat-Su Assembly early in the year seeking approval of their long sought after Special Land Use District. Talkeetna will remain a unique community because of this effort.
Meadow Lakes, just north of Wasilla on the Parks Highway, has been one of the fastest growing areas in the Valley. Their community council is beginning its work on developing a comprehensive plan that will allow them to guide growth in their area.
The Butte Community Council is working to define a management plan for public lands in the Jim Creek-Swan Lake-Knik River area. Information on their effort is available from their Web site at www.buttecc.org.
The Core Area Comprehensive Plan Update will begin in early 2003. A community participation plan will be developed so that people will have opportunities to let their thoughts and concerns be known on how to better plan this most densely populated part of the Valley.
Potential development in the Port MacKenzie area and Hatcher Pass will require some advance planning and land use regulations to ensure the valuable and unique qualities of those areas are maintained.
Every community in the Mat-Su, on one level or another, needs to be asking questions. Where should new schools be built? With almost 2,000 new electrical hookups, if every one represents a new home with two school age children we have 4,000 new kids to plan for! Where should our fire stations be? How can we ensure our water sources stay clean? Should trails be set aside? Should open space be left for animal migration between winter and summer feeding grounds? Can commercial areas be designed to mitigate traffic impacts? Should lights be shielded so that we can still see our magnificent night skies? The list goes on. And it requires many different people with unique desires and viewpoints to sit down together to define and design our future. We don't have to let "Anywhere USA" happen to us. The choice is ours to make.
We are the new pioneers. The safety and security of our investments is in our hands. Participate in your community discussions. Call the borough and city planning departments to see what is happening in your area. Be part of a positive solution.
Happy holidays and here's to a well-planned 2003!
Michelle Church is the executive director of Friends of Mat-Su, a local nonprofit concerned with issues of growth in the Mat-Su. She can be contacted at 746-0130 or at foms@mtaonline.net.
Comments
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