Efforts to secure bridge land continue

MAT-SU - A handful of Anchorage homeowners and businesses are starting negotiations with Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority to make way for the bridge and their local legislator is raising concerns.

"We actually are in the negotiating process right now. The acquisitions that are currently under way are for the full parcels only," Department of Transportation Spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy said.

She said that includes three businesses, two homes and three vacant lots. One business and one home were for sale before the process started.

Rep. Les Gara, D-Anchorage, whose district includes Government Hill where the properties are located, raised concerns in his latest letter to constituents.

"KABATA, even though no project has been approved or funded, has jumped the gun and is already telling people they are buying their homes and businesses," Gara wrote.

In an interview, he expanded on that.

"It's a classic example of backwards government, spending millions of dollars to destroy people's homes and businesses before you know whether or not you need to," he said.

The bridge project is far from certain, Gara said, noting that he and his legislative colleagues will have to decide soon whether to cover shortfalls in bridge toll revenues as the private company that is eventually picked to build the crossing begins operating it.

Supporters of covering those shortfalls say projections indicate the bridge will eventually make a profit and be able to pay back the costs to the state.

But Gara disagrees profitability is a possibility.

"Who's going to spend, they say $10 but really $20 to $30, on a toll when it's faster to get to Palmer and Wasilla on the Glenn Highway?" he asked.

Bridge supporters say they see the span as route to the state's Interior rather than as a route to Palmer and Wasilla and also as a way to open up the Point MacKenzie area to residential development.

Asked, in light of Gara's concerns, whether now is the right time to start buying up land, McCarthy said it is. KABATA is going to need all the time it can get to purchase that right of way.

"It takes about 18 months to two years to actually acquire property. It's lengthy," she said.

Buying up land at this point in the project is also standard practice in construction projects.

"What you want is both the right of way and the permits to be done at about the same time," she said.

KABATA is working on the permitting process and has received a green light from the Federal Highway Administration, which issued a "build" decision back in August.

"On a side note, it's also advantageous for property owners not to have to sit on property that has been identified as part of the right of way," McCarthy said, noting that few private parties are going to want to buy a property knowing that they'll only have it for a year or less before it's taken in as part of the project.

Then there's the issue of eminent domain, seizing property from folks who refuse to sell. Gara said homeowners have been told on the one hand that KABATA won't use eminent domain, but that on the other hand the authority does have that right.

McCarthy said the authority can exercise eminent domain as a last resort.

"I believe (the state Department of Transportation) would say the same thing that negotiating with property owners is far more productive than having a judge decide what a fair market value is," she said. "By the time you get to court, parties have stopped speaking, so we hope to never get to that point."

Gara said he's not a bridge supporter and won't be until KABATA goes back to early drafts of the project that considered landing the bridge at Elmendorf Air Force Base.

"Not until they do the right thing, which is not destroy Government Hill," Gara said.

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