New core area plan funded

MAT-SU -- The first steps were taken at last week's Mat-Su Borough Assembly meeting to develop a new core area comprehensive plan, a process borough manager John Duffy said is likely to cover much of next year.

On its consent agenda, with little fanfare, the assembly awarded a bid of $95,900 to Peter J. Smith and Company to "update and produce a comprehensive plan to guide future development and growth within the 'Core Planning Area,'" according to information included in the action memorandum.

Duffy said Smith and Company will essentially be creating a new comprehensive plan for the core area, a process that many residents have said is long overdue. Throughout the public hearings held on the zoning matter, borough residents spoke to the need for an updated comprehensive plan to guide future development. Plans were needed, not zoning, they said, and it's a topic assembly members have discussed for years.

Although former assembly member Larry DeVilbiss has been off the assembly for two years, DeVilbiss' request for a revision of Chapter One of the core area plan is still on the assembly tracking report, a list of requests for revisions or changes assembly members have made. Also appearing on the list are requests for an ordinance to address conditional-use group homes, also originally filed by DeVilbiss in July 2001; a September 2002 request by assembly member Sara Jansen for legislation designating mining districts; and a November 2002 request by assembly member Kelly Lankford Ladere for an analysis of subdivisions that took place before 1977. Although all issues may not be fully covered by the new core area comprehensive plan, they will likely be addressed by the plan in part.

Duffy said Smith and Company will work to incorporate additional plans that have been completed by the borough into the comprehensive plan. An overview of housing information, the transportation network and economic data, Duffy said, will all be incorporated into the plan, along with a lot of public involvement.

"What we're trying to do is come up with a public participation effort that is very inclusive, and brings in all walks of life," Duffy said. He's currently working with Smith and Company to find ways to include borough residents who may not attend meetings regularly, such as commuters, but who can provide integral information related to the future of the borough.

Duffy is hoping to incorporate, through the plan, what he called "build-up scenarios," or examples of what the borough could look like in 10 to 15 years. Those scenarios, Duffy said, would take into account how different actions could change the outcome, such as what the area would look like under one set of land-use regulations versus existing land-use regulations.

"It would include a review of the core area watershed," Duffy said, an important part of the borough's natural resources that often gets left out of such plans.

"It's difficult to attract good business and increase economic activity," Duffy said, when area watersheds are becoming stagnant.

The watershed study, he said, may be expanded through a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency. Borough staff are currently working to obtain the grant.

Information from other agencies, such as the state's department of fish and game, will likely be incorporated, Duffy said. More information about the public involvement aspect of the planning process, Duffy said, will be available next month.