Not so fast

WASILLA — A grant from the state’s Office of History and Archeology raises the question of who determines what is Valley history.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough applied for the $24,000 in order to take a survey of the historic buildings in Wasilla. This would be matched by $16,000 of borough funds, and the project would identify all the buildings inside city limits built before 1970.

The funding originates from the federal Historic Preservation Act, said state historian Jo Antonson. The act encourages federal, state and local partnerships for survey, inventory and registration programs, she said.

“The borough cultural resources staff and their commission thought it useful to have information about the historical aspects of Wasilla because of the pressure of development,” Antonson said.

Accepting the grant money came before the borough assembly on Aug. 4. With a majority vote, the project would have begun. That worried Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright.

Rupright said he just happened to be at the meeting voicing his dissent of the proposed boroughwide sales tax.

“I didn’t hear about it before the assembly meeting,” he said, worried the survey could place restrictions on buildings classified as historic. “We need to vet this in public. … What is going to be the ultimate outcome? Will it create any burdens or benefits?”

Antonson said there is no cause for concern on the state or federal level. Her office provides money for surveys like this around the state, and typically they are simply meant to identify possible candidates for the National Register of Historic Places.

“We like to work around 50 years, but that is a plus or minus,” Antonson said of the requirements for inclusion. “But besides just being old, it has to be important for a specific reason. It has to be known for a specific event, a pattern of events or representative of the architecture.”

What is often misunderstood, she said, is that identification or even inclusion in the federal register does not come with restrictions on the use of the property.

“A private owner can do anything to their property they want to, unless they take Federal Historic Preservation Funding,” Antonson said. “The worst that can happen is if they tear it down or change the front is when we take it off the register.”

However, Antonson said, the borough has its own registry, and she did not know what listing a building in that registry entailed.

The application submitted by the borough’s cultural resource office says the grant would pay for the first phase of the study. According to the application, the survey would provide the Wasilla with baseline information about the historic buildings for future planning considerations. No such information exists, the application claims, and this information is crucial for the city to make informed decisions.

Phase two will inventory these sites for inclusion in state databases, the application says.

“Historical review is great. Let’s just take a look at it before we sign on,” Rupright said. “My job is to make sure the people who own property in Wasilla, their rights are protected to that property.”

What the mayor is worried about is the borough has areawide powers of preservation. This means it can restrict the use of a historic sites, buildings and monuments inside city boundaries.

Staff from the borough’s planning office said these fears are perhaps overblown. While the borough may have power of preservation, there is no adopted ordinance that clarifies what they can do with it, said Dave Heier, chief of land management for the borough. There are no restrictions in place at this time for historic properties, he said.

Planning chief Eileen Probasco echoed this, saying historic status is not something her department even considers.

“When people come in for a land use permit, checking if a historical structure is not one of the things on our check list,” Probasco said.

Yet, Rupright is not yet stateside.

“The borough has come up with a gravel ordinance they want to superimpose on the cities. They have already done it with the power plants. Maybe this is next,” he said.

In response to the mayor’s concerns, the assembly agreed to table accepting the money until the city has had a chance to look at the project. It was introduced to the Wasilla Planning Commission last week, and will go to the city council for its review. The borough assembly will vote on the ordinance Dec. 15, after reading the comments from the city.

Participation in the program relies on property owner consent. Asked if he would consent to allow his property to be surveyed, Rupright said not until he had a further understanding of what consent will lead to.

“Is it a revocable consent? How far does my consent take me?” Rupright, an attorney, said. “Let’s say you found a moose jaw bone. Great. What does that mean?”

Contact Todd L. Disher at todd.disher@frontiersman.com or 352-2252.