Code change would level playing field

A very small percentage of land in Alaska is privately owned, and here in the Mat-Su Borough our largest asset is our land. We are endowed with accessible rural, agriculture and suburban lands with awesome views and surroundings. In 2008, new borough subdivision laws took effect and since that time, the number of approved subdivision plats has dropped significantly.

Over the past year there has been a persistent public outcry at assembly meetings over the cost and regulatory hurdles to subdivide land. For example, one resident seeking to combine two of his adjacent lots into one lot was required to make expensive road upgrades of an existing maintained road as a condition of approval. It has gotten so bad the borough recently exempted itself from the subdivision code to develop property at Port MacKenzie, stating it is “too costly and it will take too long.” After hearing pleas for reform every other Tuesday, I volunteered to prepare draft legislation.

Here are some other examples of why reform is needed. The current rules require that an applicant pay $25 and attend a pre-application conference where the borough staff explain to him the many steps he will have to take to subdivide a piece of land. Apparently this pre-application conference has become a formal review with staff traveling to the site and taking pictures, costing a total of $586 in staff time for each application. Of the hundreds of pre-application conferences held, only a small percentage of applicants actually follow through and subdivide, resulting in thousands of property tax dollars being wasted.

Also, under the current law there is no limit to the number of additional restrictions that can be placed upon a subdivision by the platting board — above and beyond what is mandated by the code.

The current code is narrowly drafted to deal with suburban neighborhoods and it doesn’t work well in the remote areas of the borough. A borough standard road must be built in order to be able to subdivide land anywhere in the borough. It is not feasible or practical to build a road to access a recreational site miles off the highway. Provisions to allow snowmachine, ATV and boat access via a trail along a lake or a river are needed. The state of Alaska has given up developing remote subdivisions in the borough because of the expense of complying with current laws. Other frustrated landowners have bypassed the borough code by creating condominium associations as a way to develop and divide land.

There has been concern voiced about not having enough time to consider this legislation. Deliberation of this legislation will be longer than an entire legislative session; it began in June and will likely culminate in September. It’s not rocket science to go back to the old subdivision laws that worked well for more than 20 years and use them as a starting point as this proposal does. There will be a number of improvements made as it goes through the process, such as allowing community councils adequate time to comment on a plat and requiring road upgrades if developing over a certain number of lots. In addition an expanded public notice is proposed to all property owners within a half mile of a pending platting action, far surpassing current requirements.

Most of the folks who go through the subdivision process are not developers, they are residents who have been paying their taxes, hanging on to a piece of property that they one day would like to split up and pass on to their heirs.

There are many good reasons to reform the subdivision code. If the borough can’t follow its own rules, why should we?

Jim Colver is an assembly member representing District 6, including Schrock, Memory Lake, Kings Lake, Wasilla Fishhook and Hatcher Pass areas. Contact him at jimcolver@mtaonline.net.