Palmer milks options for Mat Maid property

PALMER — Tuesday, the city council will consider what to do about a troubled land acquisition project.

It’s been more than two years since voters in fall 2010 narrowly gave city leaders the go-ahead to use $3.3 million in borrowed money to buy the Matanuska Maid block of land.

Since then, the city has worked to hammer out negotiations on seven parcels totaling 8.74 acres. The lots are a varied group, containing everything from a bookstore and fuel distribution company to a historic warehouse recently consumed by fire and the iconic Palmer water tower.

Palmer City Manager Doug Griffin has said numerous times that the acquisition process has run into snags along the way.

With the exception of the lot housing Alaskana Books, property owners haven’t warmed to the city’s initial offers. Some of have been slow in getting back to the city. Others have expressed no interest.

The state’s Agriculture Revolving Loan Fund owns the largest chunk of land and has had it on the market for $975,000. Griffin doesn’t like the idea of paying the state that much, but the state hasn’t seemed interested in other options, such as a land-swap. Another owner, fuel supplier Crowley Inc., says moving the business is cost prohibitive.

There also is potential contamination on some of the parcels from past owners that would need to be cleaned up.

All of this is laid out in a series of bullet points in the city council’s packet.

“Unless there are some changes to the bullet points listed earlier, it would appear that the option to acquire all of the properties is not attainable at this time,” the packet states.

Other options on the table?

• Buy the publicly held parcel from the Agricultural Revolving Loan Fund.

• Buy only some of the parcels.

• Stop trying to buy any of them.

That option of buying the ARLF parcel would be contingent upon getting a grant to purchase the land, which would mean the city could wrap the process up without going into any debt. The city also anticipates the state would be able to help clean up any contamination on that land.

But the process also would be wrapped up without buying any of the historical buildings there and the city would only be able to guide development on the other parcels through zoning.

City officials envision the next option, that of buying only some of the parcels, as being an option to buy the ARLF parcel and a few others.

This would incur less debt for the city than buying all the parcels, but would still run into some of the same problems as the previous option — only having zoning to guide development there and the challenges of developing a parcel with fractured ownership.

The last option, to do nothing, would leave the city with a blighted block in its downtown area as well as leaving historical structures out of the city’s hands and leave environmental issues unaddressed.

Griffin and his administration recommend the city buy the ARLF parcel and a few others.

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