Core area plan elicits range of views, input

MAT-SU -- Between 50 and 75 people took part in three workshops held last week as part of a Mat-Su Borough Core Area Comprehensive Plan Public Consensus collaboration. Listed above are just a few of the suggestions they would like to see included in future planning efforts relating to the core area. Mat-Su Borough Planning Director David Recor said he would have liked to have seen more people get involved, but this isn't a one-chance project.

"We were disappointed with the turnout," Recor said, "however we realized that this is but the first step, the first opportunity for the public to participate."

The workshops gave borough residents a chance to identify goals for the future development of the area between Palmer and Wasilla. Recor said although the public consensus meetings got off to a bit of a rocky start, a significant amount of work was completed during the last weekend. Focus groups and advisory groups met, he said, and established what will serve as a foundation to work from over the coming months.

"The advisory groups did get together … to talk about, really, the vision of the core area," Recor said.

Group members were asked to identify what they like most about the core area, what they'd like to see change, recommendations for making those changes and several other topics. They also talked about how to work toward developing a plan that was acceptable to all members of the two politically and philosophically diverse advisory groups.

"We're emphasizing consensus," Recor said. "There was a really good discussion of majority vote versus consensus. There's not going to be a majority vote rules. We will have to get together and compromise."

Recor said his goal as planning director, and the goal of the borough, is that the comprehensive plan be rooted in the community's wishes and goals. He added that he wants people to understand what this plan is -- and what it is not.

"It's your community, your plan," Recor said. "That's what this effort is all about -- it's an effort to plan for the core area. It's not a zoning ordinance masquerading as a comprehensive plan."

Some of those who took part in the first consensus collaboration, held on April 2 at Finger Lake Elementary, were skeptical of the questions being asked. But consultants from Peter J. Smith and Associates, who the borough contracted with to update the plan, said they've seen such skepticism before.

Jocelyn Gordon, an economic planner with the Buffalo, N.Y., firm, said the company contracts out to do similar planning efforts around the nation, as well as in several Canadian provinces. They've been in the middle of controversy before, and weren't surprised when people at the April 2 meeting did not welcome them with open arms.

"They're a tough crowd," Gordon said. "We've fielded tough crowds before. The problem with comprehensive plans is that the people who tend to come out are people who are disgruntled."

Many of those in attendance at the April 2 meeting spoke out numerous times against the zoning document discussed by the Mat-Su Borough Assembly last year. At the meeting, they voiced concerns about the wording of forms they were asked to fill out. The forms offered a statement and asked responders to indicate whether the statement was important, not important or whether the responder was indifferent. Attendees said different words should be used, such as agree or disagree, since they felt even if they disagreed with a statement on the form, it still may be important to them. Members of the consulting team said the answers will be interpreted in that way, but some attendees were still unsure.

"We've seen this happen before," one attendee said. "They take a survey like that and then say [the outcome] is what people wanted."

The problem with meetings made up mostly of people unhappy with the way the current government is operating, Gordon said, is that comprehensive plans must be based on a broad range of community needs and ideas. To develop that broad base of ideas, the company isn't focusing their efforts solely on events that are turnout-driven. In the coming weeks and months, community members will have other opportunities to contribute to the plan.

Recor and Borough Manager John Duffy met last week with members of the consultant team to discuss questions that will be asked in the 1,037 surveys that will be sent out randomly to borough residents, and the text of the telephone survey that will be given to the same number of borough residents. The 1,037, Recor said, represents a statistically significant sampling group for data recording in a community of our size. Recor said the mail-out surveys entail about 30 questions and will be sent out in the next week or so.

The telephone surveys will be pared-down versions of the written surveys, and should take no longer than three to five minutes of telephone time. Recor said the telephone surveys will begin around the same time the written surveys are sent out.

In addition to the two surveys, borough residents who want to take part can fill out a public comment form on the borough's Web site. Recor said the forms, along with other information about the core area comprehensive plan process, should be available on the site next week. The borough's Web site is located at www.co.mat-su.ak.us.

And although the first meeting got off to a bit of a rocky start, Recor pointed out that, by the end, several positive things had happened -- several suggestions were made about what the core area should look like in the future, and how the borough should go about meeting the needs of the growing area.

"I think we're off to a running start," Recor said. "Again, I'm really hopeful that the community will come out and let their positions be known so we have a variety of ideas in the plan."