Borough loosens shooting rules for Jim Creek area

PALMER — In a 6-1 vote, Mat-Su Borough Mayor Larry DeVilbiss got his way on changes to the borough’s plan for a 471-acre parcel near Jim Creek.

Shortly after the plan was passed last month, DeVilbiss vetoed it. He said he didn’t mind the plan. His problem was that the plan outlawed all shooting but adjacent state land allowed for hunting. The plan affects a small, but pretty important, parcel. It’s the one that includes the parking lot on Sullivan Road that most people use to access the Jim Creek area. The borough intends to develop it as sort of a park for all-terrain vehicle use.

“It’s out of synch with the rest of the management area there,” DeVilbiss said at the time.

Not everyone agreed with the mayor on loosening the shooting rules.

Cathy Hummel noted that borough land is adjacent to a school and a neighborhood, and the borough’s plan for the area involves a place to learn to ride ATVs, camping and concessions stands.

“Let’s just eliminate the guns here, regardless of the fact that you can hunt in the Knik River Public Use Area,” she said.

Mel Grove, president of the Alaska Outdoor Access Alliance, spoke in favor of the change.

“We’re all for limiting (or) not allowing target shooting just like they do in the Knik River Public Use Area, but just saying absolutely no shooting at all would restrict those that want to go out and harvest a moose,” he said.

Some speakers noted that the area is getting better, but people still often shoot in unsafe ways. Relaxing the shooting rules, some people argued, was a step in the wrong direction, they said. Others noted that the shooting ban was a changed made at the assembly table to a plan that had been drafted and discussed among community groups.

“I was a little dismayed when the amendments were made to the plan that had been agreed upon by everybody,” said Dane Crowley with the Butte Community Council.

But when it came time for the assembly to have its say, the body was nearly unanimous. The only member opposed was Warren Keogh, whose district includes the Butte.

“There’s no prerequisite, there’s no mandate that we follow Knik River Public Use Area guidelines,” he said.

He predicted that the area would only get more popular and more crowded. Shooting there, he said, is just plainly unsafe. As for the issue of being able to enforce a rule when boundaries out there aren’t marked, Keogh said that’s not an insurmountable problem.

“Why in this 400-acre parcel do we want to allow shooting?” he asked. “We’ve got 20,000 acres to go hunting right here just a few hundred feet from the park area.”

Once the measure to change the regulations passed with Keogh, the lone dissenting voice, DeVilbiss, withdrew his veto.

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

Should the Mat-Su borough remove rules prohibiting all shooting on its Jim Creek parcel?

• Ron Arvin: Yes

• Steve Colligan: Yes

• Jim Colver: Yes

• Vern Halter: Yes

• Warren Keogh: No

• Darcie Salmon: Yes

• Noel Woods: Yes