Assembly decides what to allow at port

PALMER — Changes to the documents laying out Port MacKenzie’s special use district include lists of what’s allowed there and what isn’t.

On the list of things allowed:

• Resource extraction and processing.

• Refining.

• Industrial uses.

• Commercial uses.

• All kinds of manufacturing and assembly.

On the list of things verboten:

• Adult businesses.

• Alcohol sales.

• Residential development.

That last one is mostly an issue of what is compatible with port uses and what isn’t. It took up a good chunk of the Mat-Su Borough Assembly’s discussion on the topic at its meeting Nov. 15.

“I was on the port commission when (longtime port commissioner and Point MacKenzie resident) Art Scates, God rest his soul, stood up and was very adamant about prohibiting residential development in the port,” said Assemblyman Ron Arvin. “He used as an example the challenges that Anchorage is facing today.”

Borough planner Emerson Kruger said that some industries looking to locate at the port need a pretty wide berth. The tank farm planned for the port, he noted, needs a two-mile radius free of homes in case of explosion.

“There is a significant liability issue if the borough allows through its ordinances a sensitive use in the area,” Kruger said.

But what about worker housing?

“If I was going to build a refinery in Port MacKenzie I would have my man camp within walking distance of the port, otherwise I’d have to get into a bunch of different transportation issues,” Arvin said.

But should those man camps be given a blank check in terms of the time they’re allowed to be there? The assembly was split on that issue. Assembly members Warren Keogh and Noel Woods thought the borough should set a time limit. Woods proposed a year.

“I don’t want a project going on for 20 years,” Woods said.

Keogh agreed that 20 years would be too long.

“In essence, we have long-term residency in the port industrial district adjacent to whatever the project is,” he said. “I doubt that’s in the best interest of the long-term development of the port, so I’m going to vote no.”

But Arvin noted that some of the industries the assembly is hoping to attract are, by nature, long-term deals. To think that a company could build a facility to turn coal into liquid fuel or refine biofuels in one year, Arvin said, is “laughable.”

Eventually his view prevailed. The assembly took it a step further than not putting a timeline on it and even removed the word “temporary” from the description of the type of housing allowed.

Motels are specifically allowed in the port district, but away from where the industries would go in. Kruger said they were allowed specifically around Lake Lorraine, which is just north of Point MacKenzie Road on the port end.

“One of the things that we have talked about frequently was the Lake Lorraine area, being such a scenic area, would be a magnet for high-class office space,” Kruger said.

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.