Property owner says subdivided lots will go to her children

BUTTE — A property owner whose proposed platting has become a neighborhood concern in the Circle View area says she has no plans to develop the property.

Patti Huntsman, who’s drawn some political fire from neighbors for asking the borough to re-plat her 38-acre holdings into separate parcels and re-title them as the Circle View Ranch subdivision, said the primary goal is to parcel it out to her children.

“I wanted to be able to divide it up so I could give each of my a children a piece of property,” she said.

That would, in turn, allow her children to divide the property more easily. In addition, rentable log cabins she’s already installed on the property were constructed slightly over the property line between two plats, and this also would allow that issue to be straightened out, according to Huntsman.

She said she is willing to sign a covenant — a restriction on the conditions under which the property can be sold — addressing concerns about potential development.

Huntsman’s replat goes before the platting commission at 8:30 a.m., Thursday in the borough assembly chambers.

Local residents have expressed concern that the re-platting could essentially make the erosion-gnawed Circle View neighborhood a victim of its own successes. The neighborhood formed an erosion-control district in 1991 after several buildings were lost. While some additional structures were lost between 1994 and 2004, erosion has stabilized, in part because of the use of four finger dikes along E. Brian Drive, residents say. They also agree with the general assessment offered by borough officials, that the Matanuska River is shifting its channel in order to meet up with the Knik River, and that eventually, their property will be destroyed, too. For several years they paid less in taxes than other, unthreatened properties.

Huntsman is familiar with those concerns. She even worked against some of them when a fifth finger dike was constructed a few years ago.

“The thing is, I’ve been on the Circle View erosion board for the 10 years,” she said. “I’ve spent countless hours and days working for the fifth dike. It didn’t benefit me personally.”

The board has also put together an erosion plan, she said.

Other changes, like the elimination of a public easement in favor of three non-public easements, were intended to fix some wrongs from the original platting, Huntsman said. The original public easement wasn’t supposed to be public at all, Huntsman said.

“It was never supposed to be a public access,” she said. “Nobody can figure out how that got switched.”

The neighborhood destroyed by the Mat River — metal tubes connecting the houses and small sections of concrete blocks are all that remain of some houses — was also much more densely packed than the new platt Huntsman is attempting.

“When it was divided it was one-acre plots, I’m trying to do five-acre plots,” she said. “I own both sides of the property line.”

The rental cabins have also drawn criticism, though Huntsman said she had little choice but to go into the rental business after her husband died. She tried to sell the farm they had owned together, but no one purchased it, in part because of the Mat River’s looming threat.

“I’m really sorry this community has just gotten way over the top of what it was,” she said. “I’m just a mom and a grandma.

“I have a very big mortgage to pay,” Huntsman added.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com