Borough moves forward with Hatcher Pass ski plan

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Assembly voted Thursday to go ahead with a Hatcher Pass ski area proposal put forth by consultant Ron Swanson.

“They took that proposal that we developed and presented to them last August and said, ‘okay that’s the direction we’d like to proceed with,’” said Mat-Su Borough manager John Duffy.

In specific terms, that plan calls for a regional ski area as opposed to a destination-type ski resort. It’s a plan scaled back from previous incarnations. In its initial stages there will be two chair lifts, a day lodge, night lighting and snowmaking, according to a Borough press statement.

On the Nordic ski side of things there will be between 10 and 15 kilometers of trails and an access road.

Notably absent from this version are meeting and resort facilities and residential housing.

Moving forward, Duffy said, “The critical path continues to be the environmental impact statement.”

Work for that part of the project began in earnest this summer on 11,000 acres, 3,000 of which are Borough owned, the rest leased to the Borough with an option to renew.

Some $5.7 million in federal funds are paying for the impact statement as well as constructing access routes to the area, according to the Borough press statement. The overall cost, minus that federal money, of building the ski area, according to that statement, will be about $18 million.

According to the Borough press statement, Kirk Duncan, manager of Eaglecrest Ski Area in Juneau, told assembly members that once the area is up and running it will likely pay for itself. The Borough estimates 700 to 1,500 skiers hitting the Hatcher Pass slopes each day on a weekend.

How, exactly, to fund the $18 million project is open for discussion and will be debated in the coming months.

Still, with the Assembly settled on what type of ski area to pursue, Duffy said, scientists preparing the environmental impact statement will be able to narrow their focus.

In the meantime, Duffy said, Borough staff can start looking at financing options to present to the Assembly, and look at possible management structures for the ski area.

“Our thoughts are you set up a separate corporation and that is the group that operates the ski area not the Borough,” he said.

Swanson submitted a list of alternatives for management options — everything from the Borough running the thing itself to turning it into a non-profit to selling it off to a private owner.

Duffy said the quasi-Borough corporation model is the one Borough administration is leaning toward. Swanson’s report also recommends this option.

Duffy said that the separate corporation will somewhat resemble the state’s relationship to the Alaska Railroad Corporation.

Still, he said, it’s not something the Borough has done before and part of the work ahead will be looking at other municipalities in other parts of the country with similar setups.