Borough needs master plan for growth

If the past year has taught us anything, it’s that the Mat-Su Borough must invest effort and time developing a smart growth master plan — a guiding document that can help staff and elected officials make consistent and fair decisions as our Valley population continues to swell.

The latest example comes this week, as the Mat-Su Borough Assembly debated with some local residents about creating buffer zones between private property and public lands along the Knik River. With a longstanding reputation for being a dumping ground for trash, an unofficial shooting gallery for gun enthusiasts and a junk car graveyard, some in the area want to create buffers to keep those activities away from their private property.

Assemblywoman Lynne Woods is one supporter, who proposed a resolution to support buffer zones. Although the resolution failed (Assemblywoman Michelle Church was the only other supporter), the proposal brings up another debate about how much — or how little — local governments are prepared to handle the impacts growth has on a community.

We’re not against creating these buffer zones. In fact, other communites have found them a useful part of smart growth planning, which is what the Mat-Su Borough is striving to achieve and we support. We believe that effort needs to be taken further and more focused in a smart growth master plan, where issues like buffers and other zoning questions can be addressed.

While the Borough has good intentions in wanting to take measures to clean up and regulate some of the perceived undesirable aspects of some areas around the Knik River, without a growth plan it may be best to start at a more local level. The entire Butte Community Council attended this week’s assembly meeting to protest the Borough considering action on an issue it believes should have more local attention first.

Council members are miffed that the Borough would try to come in and clean up their house.

Some don’t want, as resident Catherine Hummel told the assembly, to live near an area where “its public use is as a dump, followed then by a shooting gallery and finally by a motocross park.”

As those who represent residents of the Knik River area, it’s up to the local community council to have the first crack at addressing these concerns. At the same time, it is wholly appropriate for the assembly to include buffer zones — where and when they may be needed or appropriate — in a growth management master plan.

As the Valley continues to be the fastest-growing place in Alaska, issues like the Knik River clutter will become exacerbated. Such a plan could help guide the assembly in addressing complaints about Knik River use. It would also be helpful in making consistent choices about zoning requests, signage regulations and how much freedom property owners should be allowed to do whatever they want on their lands depending on population density and potential impacts on others.

While this week’s debate is about buffer zones — which seem a logical compromise to minimize the impact those using nearby public lands have on residents — it’s a reminder of how a growth master plan could help guide the Borough as it continues to address issues of where private property and public use meet.

It’s a difficult task and will generate much debate itself, but if the Mat-Su Borough is truly a champion of private property rights, it will create a document that will guide this and future assemblies into making nonreactionary, informed decisions.