Borough goes online for transportation feedback

WASILLA — The Mat-Su Borough is looking for input in revising an ongoing long-range transportation plan for the region, and planners are hopeful a virtual “open house” of sorts will give residents the time to participate.

As part of an update to its Long Range Transportation Plan, the borough has partnered with engineering firm HDR Inc. to create an online presentation, survey and interactive comment map to encourage residents to look at needs they feel should be addressed in the next 20 years.

The presentation can be found at www.msblrtp2035.com.

The borough population passed the 100,000 mark recently, and the region continues to be the fastest growing in the state. With that growth expected to continue, the numbers add up to potential long-term pressure on transportation infrastructure.

The online open house began April 29 and will run through June 15. The borough used a shorter version of the online project in 2014. Input gathered from the forum will be added to information gained from public meetings and other outlets as part of the updated draft plan, according to borough chief of planning Lauren Driscoll.

“We are really encouraging people to go online to let us know what is important to them,” Driscoll said. “We have all this (traffic) modeling data, but we want to incorporate the human element as well.”

According to an online summary, the purpose of the Long Range Transportation Plan is to identify improvements that will “enhance safety, reduce congestion and facilitate commerce within the borough to the year 2035. All modes of travel will be addressed in the plan, including highways, rail, aviation, pedestrians, bicycles, port and transit.”

The long-range plan helps determine which transportation projects are advanced and funded along with providing a framework from which the borough’s Capital Improvement Plan is developed, according to the borough. The capital plan, updated by the borough every year, identifies transportation projects slated for construction during the next six years.

“We want to look at things from a regional perspective that will help coordinate a bigger picture look at what our future funding will be based on.” Driscoll said.

She added that in the long run, with potentially less money to go around, a more complete transportation system with more defined areas — like more transit hubs or mixed-use, walkable developments — is desirable.

“It’s not always just roads,” Driscoll said. “Roads are good, but we have to look at how all the pieces can work together.”

The 2007 version used a forecast year of 2025. Based on information available at that time, the plan anticipated most of the future growth to occur in the Palmer-Wasilla core area. While the core has seen steady growth, the population boom has occurred southwest of Wasilla along Knik-Goose Bay Road, where the borough said 50 percent of new population growth has settled in the last seven years.

“One side effect of this growth is that people in these areas are using roads that were not designed to accommodate existing, let alone future, traffic volumes,” the online summary says. “Increased traffic has led to congestion issues and safety concerns on several roadways, including the Parks Highway west of Wasilla and Knik-Goose Bay Road.”

The online open house includes an interactive comment map for residents to select the areas they think could be improved. Daily traffic flow maps, a traffic congestion chart and a “tough choices” transportation survey also are available on the site.

Alternatives to road building also are addressed in the survey, with a focus on walking and biking, public transportation and mixed-use, transit-based land development methods offered as ways to cut down the traffic volume.

Driscoll said after the online survey closes, the next step will be a fall public outreach program that will incorporate the results.

“We’ll take that information and begin meeting with all the road service area folks and community councils, among others, to share the information with them,” Driscoll said. “We received good feedback from the last survey in 2014, and I hope residents will take the time to go online and check it out.”

Contact reporter Steven Merritt at 352-2269 or steven.merritt@frontiersman.com