Agriculture in the Valley is our history, future

Palmer isn’t a town with an identity crisis. It embraces its agricultural roots and its multi-faceted future.

How history, the future, and agriculture and commercial interests will intertwine is a question muddied by the city’s interest in a large block of property in the city and its control over how that land is used.

If you were to survey those city voters who cast “yes” ballots for last October’s bond proposal to float up to $3 million in loans to purchase the seven parcels that make up the so-called Mat Maid Block of property northwest of the Mat-Su Borough Building, you’d likely get a variety of suggestions on how the historic buildings and land should be used. Palmer City Council itself is divided on whether it should acquire the property first or plan for its reuse. City officials concede they expect both processes to take considerable time.

In the meantime, the biggest single chunk of those 8.3 acres is a 3-acre parcel owned by the state and under the control of the Board of Agriculture and Conservation. Whether those 3 acres of former Matanuska Maid property are ever part of the city’s land base is a decision that rests with that six-member board.

The BAC is expected to meet soon to decide whether it will allow Matanuska Creamery to lease the property for a negligible amount and grant it loan concessions to facilitate renovations and the move of the creamery from its Palmer-Wasilla Highway location to the historic downtown Palmer building.

The creamery’s CEO says the business must move to survive, and its first choice is a move that would take it onto property traditionally used for agricultural processing and be part of what could be an agricultural processing-retail-tourism complex.

The city sees that move as one that would hogtie its planning process and force it to accept a lessee that would pay little or no rent for up to five years.

But the city doesn’t own the land. The city has yet to make an offer. The city isn’t sure the $3 million voters allocated is enough to purchase the land and remediate any environmental issues. Like the creamery, it is exploring ways to acquire the property for little or no financial outlay.

While the city wants a “seat at the table” because it might acquire the property, its only real role is as the municipality in which the property lies. And as that, it could drag out the rezoning and permitting processes so long that Matanuska Creamery, which needs to move from its current location soon, has no choice but to move elsewhere or go under, taking the state’s dairy industry with it, and causing irreparable harm to the state’s fragile agricultural industry.

Instead of clouding any deal between BAC and Matanuska Creamery, the city should let that process move forward unimpeded and incorporate any agricultural operations into its plans, should it ever get title to the lands in the Mat Maid block. A town whose very foundation is agriculture can afford to nurture its roots.