Borough establishes land criteria

MAT-SU -- Under new criteria adopted by the Mat-Su Borough Assembly at its meeting last week, policies for rejecting applications to lease or purchase borough land were set up.

According to information submitted to the assembly by borough staff, the borough's land management division operates under its policy and procedures manual for real property disposal. That policy gave the borough manager the authority to reject an application, but did not set out criteria for such rejections.

The new policy would give the borough manager 30 days to reject or accept an application, based on seven criteria including whether the applicant is a public utility or agency, whether the application furthers public health or welfare, whether the applicant is a nonprofit organization or has an adjoining lot that is substandard or unusable.

The new criteria also take into account whether the borough benefits from the property disposal beyond receiving revenue, whether the proposed land use is compatible with its surrounding area, whether the proposed use of the property adversely impacts a greater public benefit for which the property could be or is presently used, and whether the proposed use of the property will have public support.

While assembly member Bruce Bush said he felt the change gave the borough manager a lot of power over approval or denial of land transactions, Borough Manager John Duffy said the opposite was true. Should the manager reject the proposal, Duffy said, the application would come before the assembly for its final approval or rejection.

The policy change passed the assembly with Bush's lone opposition.

Other borough actions at last week's meeting:

Borough resident Noel Woods was presented with a Mat-Su Borough proclamation honoring him for his years of borough service. According to the proclamation, Woods has served several terms on the borough's Port Commission, including time as the chair of the commission. He served on the borough assembly in 1966 and worked on the Mayor's Blue Ribbon Fisheries Committee in the same year.

The assembly approved $328,000 for the purchase of a fire engine for the Butte Fire Service Area, along with fire fighting equipment such as hoses, nozzles, hand tools and other equipment needed to outfit the truck. The fire service area board of supervisors also requested about $8,000 to cover the cost of airpack testing equipment that, by law, will be deemed obsolete by the end of the year.

The Seldon Road extension project got a boost from a $125,000 appropriation that will fund design of the project. Duffy told the assembly the money will fund geotechnical and design work to Church Road.

"Our hope is to eventually get to the Parks Highway," Duffy said.

The Seldon Road Extension is a project the borough has been pushing forward in an attempt to provide additional east-west corridors to reduce the stress on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

"This is an important link in our transportation plan," assembly member Jody Simpson said.

The motion to approve design funding passed unanimously.

Changes were made to the borough's voting procedures for voters who are unable to visit the polls. The assembly unanimously passed special-needs voting procedures that borough clerk Sandra Dillon said would make it easier for voters who need the assistance of a personal representative to vote, by reducing the number of steps to finish the application and procedure.