Protect, preserve quality of life

Good news, Mat-Su Borough neighbors! The global financial crisis that caused so much damage and heartache across much of the nation seems to have missed us here in the Mat-Su.

We’re glad to see this information included in the Mat-Su Borough’s 2013 annual report because sometimes folks forget these hardscrabble days passed us by.

Instead of a doom-and-gloom economic forecast, the borough’s report says employment grew each year between 2007 and 2009, for a total employment growth rate of 8 percent.

The borough cited state economist Neal Fried as the researcher who found that 40 percent of all Alaska’s new home construction in 2011 was in the Mat-Su. Fried says people who invest in homes here get more house and more land while paying less for an equivalent property in the Anchorage area.

These factors have fueled our housing and employment growth for a couple of decades. But we think quality of life is at least as important when people decided where to live.

As a region, this is our next challenge. Our population grew by 50 percent in the last decade and by a similar amount during the previous U.S. Census period. We have thousands and thousands of new neighbors, and that’s the real challenge

We’re approaching 94,000 residents, the borough’s annual report says. But in some ways, our rules and regulations are outdated remnants of our past when Wasilla and Palmer more closely resembled Willow and Houston in size.

Few weeks pass in the newsroom when someone doesn’t come forward asking for our help writing about a gravel pit with owners who seem indifferent to the challenges that arise from operating a mine in a residential neighborhood. Or maybe your neighborhood is the one with a new landfill proposed that began operating before it had the required permits in hand.

More than our reputation as an affordable place to buy a home, we are concerned with preserving the quality of life for all of us as this region continues this growth spurt.

We have heard much from the Mat-Su Borough Assembly about its efforts to make the Valley “open for business.” But when we talk to our neighbors, their concerns are about quality of life for the families who live here.

For the last several years, the assembly has seemed to focus the bulk of its efforts and resources on big capital projects like the Point MacKenzie dock, a new rail spur and expanding the borough’s administration building.

We see these types of forward-looking capital projects as necessary, and we understand their positive effect on our long-term quality of life. But we hope development is never just for its own sake. Such projects should never prioritize the needs of private business or individual gain over the needs and sustainability of borough residents and their families.

As our population continues to climb, it is time to review borough code and make sure the quality of life we enjoy today is preserved and protected for future generations.