Planning Commission in favor of Fishhook plan, delays decision on trails

PALMER — The Mat-Su Borough Planning Commission opted to approve the Fishhook Community Comprehensive Plan on Monday, but declined to adopt the borough’s updated Recreational Trails Plan, postponing the matter to its March 20 meeting for further discussion.

The commission did get as far as passing an amendment to the trails plan, however, proposed by planning commission member Vern Rauchenstein.

The amendment removed a section of the plan that would have allowed the borough to take portions of private property owners’ land in the service of trails under eminent domain.

The section did not specify that any property in particular was earmarked for eminent domain under the trails plan.

Still, that didn’t sit well with Rauchenstein.

“Private property owners pay taxes so trails can exist,” Rauchenstein said. “I think eminent domain should be eliminated entirely. Trails are a pleasure thing for the community, not a necessity. Eminent domain is supposed to be used for necessity, for things the borough needs.”

Rauchenstein’s amendment passed without objection.

But Stafford Glashan objected to adopting the trails plan in general.

He said he had concerns that the plan was little more than an “inventory” of the trails in the Mat-Su, and he asked why, unlike borough planning for roads, it didn’t contain a list of priorities for investment in trails and public access.

Sara Jansen, active chief of planning for the borough, said that such priorities were indeed listed instead under the borough’s capital improvement plan.

But in moving to postpone consideration of the trails plan to March 20, the commission cited the absence of borough staff who could adequately address questions the body had about the plan. Questions raised by commission members during discussion included what the criteria was for selecting trails under the plan; and how non-motorized and motorized uses might be designated under the plan.

The Fishhook Community Comprehensive Plan fared better.

After hearing from Jansen and members of the Fishhook Community Council, the commission passed a resolution to adopt it.

Joe Irvine, Fishhook Community Council secretary, said the plan went through several iterations and edits, and had a lot of community participation throughout its development.

He said members of the Fishhook Community voted 106-76 to adopt the plan at the last community council meeting, held Oct. 27, 2016.

Irvine said some who opposed the plan’s passage expressed concern that it was essentially a “precursor to zoning laws.”

He said the plan isn’t so much a document “with teeth,” as it is “an expression of the desires and values of our community.”

“There was lively discussion,” Irvine said of the community council meeting, “But in the end, the yeas prevailed to move forward the comprehensive plan.”

The planning commission passed the resolution in support of the Fishhook Community Comprehensive Plan without objection.