Borough seeks subdivision exemption for Point Mac

PALMER — With the Mat-Su Borough assembly set to consider a rule change tonight that would make it easier to lease land near Point MacKenzie, one assemblyman has already made it crystal clear he thinks the change is unfair.

The ordinance would exempt the Point MacKenzie area and a few other places zoned for industrial use from rules governing the subdividing of land that would then be leased to businesses. The subdivision code, though, is standing in the way, slowing down that process.

According to the ordinance, that section of the code book — the borough’s Title 27 — “is generally geared toward residential subdivisions, and the requirements are more complex than necessary for development in the industrial zoning area within the port district.”

The port area is mostly industrial and mostly borough-owned, according to the ordinance, which cites those facts as further evidence the subdivision rules aren’t exactly necessary. There just aren’t as many neighboring landowners who will be affected by development in the area.

With a rail spur heading out that way and other development moving along at the port, the ordinance says a lot of people are looking to lease land there. This would make it easier for the borough to divide up its parcels into smaller lots to be leased rather than having to lease large, unmanageable tracts.

The whole idea seems to be to make it easier to lease to people who want to do business there. Assemblyman Mark Ewing considers himself to be pro-business and has said so numerous times, even while he talked about the proposed ordinance. But he nevertheless plans to vote against it.

He said the issue is one of fairness. If the borough doesn’t have to follow its own rules, neither should its residents.

“It’s not fair to the public to create rules for the king and make the paupers toe the line,” Ewing said. “It’s not the way I do business. It’s not the way the borough is going to do business on my watch anyway.”

In his view, Ewing said, the borough has put in place a number of onerous rules for anyone who wants to subdivide land here.

“They created rules that are so restrictive even the borough can’t follow them,” he said, pointing to falling numbers of subdivision plats in recent years. He said it’s tough out there for a developer.

“They’re selling off their equipment. They can’t do business here,” Ewing said. “Title 27 needs to be looked at again and we need to rethink all of the changes that have happened in the last couple of years because we are running these guys out of business.”

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