Gravel pit pegged for Wasilla train station

WASILLA — A large gravel pit between the Lake View Estates condominiums and the Village Heights subdivision could one day become the city’s new train station.

The Wasilla City Council voted 5-1 to approve the expenditure of $1.5 million of a $5-million state grant to buy the property — currently owned by the Smith-Hagen family — to serve as a train stop for the Alaska Railroad. The property is presently assessed at $1.2 million, according to borough property records, though assessments typically lag behind market values for properties.

The item, in the form of an action memorandum, had been listed on the consent agenda, but was pulled off by councilwoman Colleen Sullivan-Leonard, who questioned where the remaining roughly $3.5 million would be spent. Sullivan-Leonard eventually cast the lone dissenting vote against the purchase. Other sites may be better suited for visitors, like an airport location or a location near the existing train station, Sullivan-Leonard suggested.

“I do have a little bit of concern with the location,” she said. “I do have concern with the price for purchase of the gravel pit. Also, the other piece of it is traffic.”

Officials have debated since January whether the new train stop could be located at the property, and the need by the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to relocate the train station, Public Works Director Archie Giddings testified. Debate about the train station’s possible location had temporarily delayed the Wasilla Main Street project, which is designed to put a couplet in to alleviate north-south congestion through Wasilla.

“Basically, there’s a state law that says you can’t block a road for more than five minutes,” he said.

The current train station stop next to the historic Wasilla train depot at 415 Railroad Avenue means a plan to expand a road across the Parks Highway corridor as a one-way street would essentially violate that law. Officials have been looking to move the station ever since, Giddings said.

The cost of constructing what is formally known as the Wasilla Intermodal Station are estimated about $12 million, officials have said, and the gravel pit purchase doesn’t lock the city into further spending at that location. Renderings of the train station used as part of a legislative lobbying campaign show no access to the Parks Highway from the train station. Instead, the only access would be along Railroad Avenue, Giddings said.

The train station’s location was determined in part by the need for a long, straight section of rail for the train to stop, Giddings said. The plans are also scalable to available funding, Giddings said.

“We can function pretty well with just a pavilion and the paved parking and some landscaping,” he said.

Contact reporter Brian O’Connor at 352-2270, brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com, or on Twitter @reporterbriano.