Mat-Su could sell land to KABATA

KNIK — Through Sunday, the Mat-Su Borough is accepting comments on plans to sell borough land for the proposed Knik Arm Bridge.

According to a public notice from the borough, the proposed sale encompasses a planned road running from Point MacKenzie Road directly south of Twin Island Lake past Lake Lorraine.

“That’s to make connections to the existing road network,” said Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority spokeswoman Shannon McCarthy.

She said it’s a 300-acre parcel, and that KABATA also needs 200 acres of “submerged land” running out from the beach at Point MacKenzie. That’s also borough land.

“In order to keep the bridge length as short as possible, we’ll build essentially a causeway,” she said.

Borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan said the proposal set to go before the borough assembly Dec. 3 would to sell the land rather than allow KABATA rights to use it through an easement.

“It would be conveyed in fee for fair market value, which is a clearer way of a land exchange rather than an easement, which is not clear,” Sullivan said.

Sullivan said the right of way is 3 miles long and traverses 15 borough properties in the port district.

According to the ordinance the assembly is set to consider on Dec. 3, its fair market value is $1,279,400.

Other than the borough land, McCarthy said, KABATA bought a half-acre of private land and has an agreement to buy a triangle shape 2.25-acre piece of Alaska Mental Health Trust land. It’s also working on an agreement to buy land from the University of Alaska.

“It’s far less complicated on the Mat-Su side. There were no structures involved,” McCarthy said, referring to the much more complex process of buying land in the Government Hill neighborhood of Anchorage.

Media reports from over the weekend detail the growing dispute between KABATA and businesses that have so far refused efforts to buy their property to make way for the bridge.

Despite questions at the Legislature, where KABATA has yet to receive the money it says is necessary to cover potential shortfalls between bridge revenues and loan payments, the authority is moving ahead with land purchases on both sides. By law, KABATA can exercise eminent domain and seize the property it needs as a last resort.

Maps and more information about the plan are available on the borough’s website, matsugov.us under the “Public Notices” tab. Comments should be mailed or delivered to the Land Management Division of the borough’s Community Development Department, 350 E. Dahlia Ave., Palmer, AK 99645.

Like any ordinance, when the measure comes up for an assembly vote the public will have a chance to comment.

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