New ‘Circle View Ranch’ plat OK’d

PALMER — The platting authority commission for the Mat-Su Borough voted 4-1 Thursday to approve a contentious re-platting in a Butte subdivision.

Despite opposition from neighbors described as “unanimous,” the commission granted Patti Huntsman the consolidation of and subdivision of her Circle View property into eight lots of between four and five acres each. Huntsman says she isn’t seeking the subdivision with an eye toward development, but in the hopes of leaving evenly divided land to her children and grandchildren.

“I don’t think my kids are going to build there,” she said. “They all have nice houses. If they think about it, there’s a plat note on it that says it’s an erosion zone.”

She said she’s also willing to sign covenants, or legal promises, preventing any more than single-family developments on the lots once subdivided. Huntsman also said she would pay more into the neighborhood Erosion Control District once the properties were subdivided.

“I pay about 20 percent of the district’s total budget now,” she said.

The remark drew audible incredulous chuckles from several neighborhood residents, who told commissioners the re-platting would pave the way for additional development.

Since at least the early ’90s, area residents have watched more than one building disappear into the waters of the encroaching Matanuska River. The borough has also held onto foreclosed property to keep it from being developed in an area where erosion is a known risk, and until recently residents paid extremely reduced property taxes because their land was essentially unsellable.

Plat commissioners appeared to agree that Alaska law and borough ordinance, as well as general concerns about development in an undefined erosion zone, did not trump Huntsman’s right to manage her property.

Nothing prevented housing construction without the re-plat, said Platting commissioner Jay Van Diest.

“Houses can go on there as it is,” he said. “Our actions aren’t saying ‘yes you can build there.’ That permission’s already there for the owner. I’ve lived here my whole life, and I understand these issues that are going on there, but we have our (borough) code 43 that we have to follow.”

The subdivision could actually prevent denser construction, Van Diest said.

Residents like Ben Milum appeared resigned to the fact that their land will one day become inundated, despite extraordinary measures like the construction and maintenance of five finger dikes to prevent shoreline erosion at considerable financial burden to the neighborhood residents, Huntsman included.

“We all know those dikes are not permanent,” Milam said. “The Matanuska River took 110 feet behind my house in 24 hours. Dike 3 has been rebuilt three times since I’ve been there.”

The Matanuska River possesses awesome power, Milam said.

“I watched them one time with the heavy equipment,” he said. “One rock they put on those dikes was probably the size of a Volkswagen, and it floated off down the river. It makes no sense at all to authorize any construction or anything at all in that area. It’s just not stable.”

Other residents said their relationship with the issue had been through the courts. Don Dyer sued two real estate agencies in 2011 for their failure to disclose the issue, a case that eventually ended in a confidential settlement in February 2013, court records show.

“Five years ago when we considered purchasing the property there, it was not disclosed to us about the erosion district, even though that was required by the disclosure laws of Alaska,” Dyer said. “People asked us ‘Didn’t you see the dikes?’ No we didn’t see the dikes. They were blocked by vegetation.”

Several property owners have described feeling “stuck” in Circle View, a feeling at once pleasant and frustrating, said Nancy Dyer.

“It’s a wonderful subdivision,” she said. “We’re not happy about what’s happening in our neighborhood. We know the dikes are no guarantee that we’re not going to be in the drink someday.”

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com