No zoning needed, claim opponents

PALMER -- No zoning, please. That's the message that the Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission got loud and clear at Tuesday night's public hearing on the proposed core area zoning ordinance.

In spite of efforts to incorporate public comment and make changes in the ordinance that meet the needs of the inhabitants of the core area, the commission and staff were greeted with few happy faces in the audience Tuesday.

Sandra Garley, borough planning director, said in a Wednesday telephone interview that she was glad to see so many people in attendance.

"It's always good to have the input," she said. "The commissioners were listening and they will consider all the issues raised when they roll up their sleeves at the next work session."

People who had plowed through Tuesday's snow to let the planning commission know how they felt about the proposed ordinance began to fill the Palmer High School theater at least 30 minutes before the start of the meeting. Seventy-one signed up to speak at this public hearing, the first of two scheduled for this week.

The second hearing is scheduled for tonight at Palmer High Theater at 6 p.m.

The log cabin backdrop behind the commission's row of tables and microphones onstage seemed oddly appropriate as a steady stream of people came to the speaker's podium to protest that the proposed ordinance violates Alaska's pioneering spirit. Only a handful of voices were raised in support of the measure, and even those expressed concerns

that the ordinance needs more work, time, and research before it should be implemented.

Speakers who opposed the ordinance included citizens from a cross-section of society, although many admitted as they stepped to the podium that they did not live in the core area and several that they lived in Anchorage. Business people, pilots, descendants of early homesteaders, political leaders, a former borough mayor, a former member of the planning commission, and whole families came forward to protest the loss of freedom and property values they fear will result from zoning.

Some speakers brought props to use in their speeches - a roll of toilet tissue for the commission to use to make copies of the ordinance, several rusty links of genuine Georgia slave chain that the speaker rattled repeatedly to emphasize his belief that zoning would abridge freedom.

Few of the speakers had specific constructive comments concerning the provisions of the proposed ordinance, but several trends emerged amid the emotion and rhetoric.

Although 65 percent of core-area voters in the October 1999 ballot supported the borough's consideration of zoning on a precinct-by-precinct basis, many attendees asserted that the borough does not have a public mandate for the zoning proposal, or to spend money in the process of planning for zoning. Others said zoning the core area represents the beginning of the creeping incremental restrictions that had driven them from their homes and property in other states to seek freedom in Alaska.

Another predominant theme was that, in spite of the variety of methods that the borough used to solicit comment (including the mailing of individual newsletters to approximately 8,500 hundred core area property owners), there is a belief that public notice, time and opportunity for comment has been inadequate. Many speakers stated that there are citizens who cannot read or who otherwise have limited or no access to information media, but who are potentially affected by the proposed ordinance and still do not know about it.

While a few speakers opposed to the ordinance commended the commission for its response to previously expressed concerns in their continued revisions, many others claimed that much more research was needed to place land correctly within districts and to determine potential negative social and economic impact of implementation.

Speaker after speaker urged that the commission wait longer and do more study, that there seemed to be a "rush to judgment" to implement the proposal, although, as previously published, zoning ordinances of one form or another have been contemplated in the borough since at least November 1997.

In this same vein, many speakers questioned the borough's ability to enforce the zoning ordinance if it passes, or to pay for enforcement.

Interested citizens may still make their voices heard in the zoning issue. Copies of the most recent revision to the proposed ordinance are available to be picked up in both the Palmer and Wasilla libraries. Call the borough office in Palmer at 745-9833 to pick up a copy, or view it on the borough's web site at www.co.mat-su.ak.us.

Comments on the plan are still being accepted can be submitted via e-mail at hbovat@msb.co.mat-su.ak.us, through the borough web site at the address shown above, or faxed to the planning department at 745-9876. All comments should reach the department prior to the Friday public hearing, in order that copies may be provided to the commissioners.

The zoning ordinance is long from being in its final draft, or from being accepted as law. After today's public hearing, the planning commission will hold several work sessions to incorporate any necessary changes or revisions over the next week. A work session is scheduled Saturday from 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. in the borough assembly chambers. Another work session follows Monday, and is scheduled for 1 to 6 p.m. in the assembly chambers. A final work session is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. in assembly chambers.