Planning group marks 9 years

April 1, 2007

By Russell Stigall

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - Nine years after its formation as a group promoting responsible development, Friends of Mat-Su held its annual meeting Friday evening.

Borough Manager John Duffy and Attorney General-designate Talis Colberg addressed at the gathering, which was held at Agate Inn, just off the Palmer-Wasilla Highway.

Friends of Mat-Su President Mike Chmielewski said the controversial group is often misunderstood.

&#8220Sometimes we're called an environmental group,” he said. &#8220We're not an environmental group. We are a planning group. We're not against mining and gravel, we just want it done right.”

Friends of Mat-Su began nine years ago as a response to issues like the 1997 opening of the North Star Speedway, assembly member Michelle Church said.

The growth happening in the Valley began to conflict with residents' uses of the Valley, group secretary Jim Klauder added. So began Friends of Mat-Su.

For a group whose motto is &#8220plan our growth,” there could be no better speaker at the Friends of Mat-Su's annual meeting than Duffy, a planning guru. For the occasion of their annual meeting, the Friends wanted an overview of past planning successes in the borough.

&#8220I can't think of anyone active that would have a better sense of the last 20 years,” Chmielewski said, in referencing to Duffy.

Colberg, a Palmer resident and former borough assembly member who is awaiting confirmation as Alaska's attorney general, introduced Duffy to the assembled group. Colberg's intro doubled as a good-natured roast.

When Duffy first came to the Valley 20 years ago, the area was home to about 7,000 residents. Today there are close to 80,000.

&#8220We're clipping along at about 4.5 percent growth,” Duffy said. &#8220Which is fast.”

Planning, Duffy said, came early to the Mat-Su, which was formed in 1964.

The first zoning forms started to show up only two years later, Duffy said, regarding the Nancy Lake Recreation Area.

However, Duffy said the years around the economic crash of 1986 were strong and aggressive anti-planning years. Duffy came into the borough as a planner. In those early years he said he could only provide assistance and he could not talk at the meetings.

&#8220It was the most bizarre thing,” Duffy said.

The atmosphere has changed since then, and planning is more in vogue.

Some other prominent planning ordinances dealt with the Palmer Hay Flats in 1979, the 1983 mobile home parks ordinance, residential ordinance and conditional-use permit for alcohol in 1984, South Denali in 1990, adult-oriented conditional-use permitting in 1994, single-family residential and race track ordinances of 1997, and the large lots use district from 2003. In 2004, the borough adopted a noise ordinance and coal bed methane ordinance that Duffy called &#8220one of the most progressive in the nation.”

Recently, the borough

has added ordinances on materials extraction and land-use permits.

With so much going on and so much to do, Duffy said, people tend to get discouraged. He encouraged people to attend assembly and planning meetings and give support.

&#8220We can't do it alone. We have to have citizens that are interested and active,” Duffy said.

Friends of Mat-Su is an active group and isn't resting on past successes. Members' current attention is turned to, among other issues, a core-area comprehensive plan and borough-area comprehensive plan.

The group continues to track the coal-bed methane issue and has shown interest in Matanuska Electric Association's plans to build a coal-fired power plant in the Valley. Friends of Mat-Su is championing a salmon conservation project, which is in its initial stages, and members are trying to protect and preserve farm land in the Valley, as well as trying to improve the water quality of Cottonwood Creek.

The Friends' annual meeting was also an election night. Running for seats on the FoMS board of directors was Gil Lucero, Mike Chmielewski, Bill Mohrwinkel and Joe Irvine. Since there were four candidates and four open seats, the suspense was minimal.

&#8220We counted our ballots and counted them twice. It seems that everyone won,” secretary Klauder said.

For more information on the Friends of Mat-Su visit www.foms.net.

Contact Russell Stigall at

352-2267 or russell.stigall@ frontiersman.com