Ag land needs a new policy

There were a couple of interesting recent developments with regard to agricultural land in the Mat-Su recently.

In one case, a parcel near the Alaska State Fairgrounds was put into trust to ensure it will be agricultural-use only, hopefully in perpetuity.

In another case, the request of a road building company to remove agriculture-only restrictions on a piece of land it purchased in Willow went before the Mat-Su Borough Assembly, though a decision was delayed.

Our read on the assembly is that it’s actually an open question whether the restrictions will be lifted but if they are the company, Coalaska, is going to have to pay dearly for the development rights to the parcel.

There is significant debate in Mat-Su about what to do with farmland, especially with farmland protected with these ag-only restrictions. Some ag land here is governed by borough rules, such as the Willow parcel Coalaska seeks to mine. And other farmland in the Mat-Su is state land and governed by the state board of agriculture, such as the former dairy farms in the Point MacKenzie area.

We need a plan for how we preserve, protect and manage the Valley’s farmland.

Government — and anyone who enjoys eating — has a vested interest in ensuring that the arable land here isn’t paved over for subdivisions, or mined for gravel. We need to feed ourselves day-to-day and building subdivisions on our best farmland is shortsighted.

In a perfect world, farmers would use all farmland to grow food. We would need all of our farmland just to feed Alaskans. But that’s not how it works. Most of our food is grown elsewhere and shipped here.

So what about developers who buy farmland knowing the land has restrictions? In some cases they have been stewards of the land for decades and they are, in many cases, willing to pay a fair price for the development rights. Should the borough have a process that gives consideration to the time and effort they’ve put in making something out of this land? Should we create a process where people willing to pay fair market value for these rights can acquire them?

Assemblyman Vern Halter has proposed a solution for the Willow land — which, if it has been farmed, hasn’t been in years, and was most recently used to store dynamite — what if we take the money we receive from people wanting the restrictions lifted and use it to preserve farmland that is actually in use?

There are numerous farms and cleared fields here on land with no ag-only restrictions. What if we use that money to purchase the development rights for those parcels? This is something we think the borough should seriously consider enshrining in code. The federal government does it already with wetlands. If a business wants to fill in wetlands the requirement is often that it has to pay to protect or restore a similar amount of wetlands to those it intends to destroy.

Seems like a fair compromise to us. We urge the assembly to consider this option.