Residents discuss development in Denali parks

TRAPPER CREEK -- A project to open the south sides of Denali State Park and Denali National Park and Preserve to more public use is moving forward, and residents met last weekend to learn how to get involved.

Many at the meeting had questions about what development would look like, whether a proposed nature center to be located off Petersville Road would be manned year-round and what access residents would have to the park. But those decisions have yet to be made -- and aren't even being considered at this point, according to officials at the meeting. Instead, a borough-appointed committee is reviewing plans to update a road-corridor plan that addresses future development in the area.

The desire to have another access route to the national park -- and to the state park that skirts it -- started in the 1960s, according to information from Miriam Valentine, who works for the National Parks Service in the Talkeetna Ranger station.

Pete Panarese, chief of field operations for Alaska State Parks, said the vision at that time was much different than what people are considering for development today.

Panarese said former Alaska Congressman Mike Gravell had, in the early days, wooed support with ideas of a lighted ski area, a lighted airstrip or a domed city on McKinley's slopes. Although Gravell's ideas were supported by some big-thinkers at the time, they weren't well-received back in Alaska.

"People would say, 'I don't want to see lights out there in the middle of nowhere,'" Panarese said. It was Bradford Washburn who suggested instead building a more Alaska-style facility -- something austere that could be added to over time, as visitors' needs grew or changed.

"The idea, in Bradford Washburn's mind, is that we owe it to the residents … to be able to drive out there and see it up close because it's one of the wonders of the world," Panarese said. "How we do that is something we want to be very careful about."

In 1970, state legislators passed legislation setting aside more than 200,000 acres that extended on both sides of the then-new Parks Highway as Denali State Park. Although the legislation doesn't say much, Panarese said, the intent was to keep the adjacent land from being a federally managed area and thereby allow Alaskans to make use of it as they saw fit -- as hunting and fishing grounds, for snowmachining and four-wheeling and other recreational purposes not generally allowed in federally managed parks. In 1976, he said, the state portion of the park was further expanded by about 42,000 acres to include the area now being discussed along Petersville Road. The intent of that expansion, he said, was primarily for future tourism use.

In recent years, a governor-appointed task force was put together to review plans for the South Side development. But, as advisory committee chairman Dave Jones said Saturday, when the plan was presented to the people living in the Trapper Creek and Petersville areas, it was met with stiff resistance. The uproar was heard by Alaska's federal delegation, and efforts to obtain funding were moved off the high-priority list. In the meantime, the Mat-Su Borough put together a group of people from the area to work on a Petersville Road Corridor Management plan, which would give area residents some say in how the development took place. Although that plan has been on the shelf since August 1998, the advisory committee -- still with some members from the planning phase -- dusted it off and is in the process of seeing how its recommendations line up with the community's current needs.

Community members and those who use the area are invited to make their comments about the plan known. The Mat-Su Borough Planning Department sent out surveys to area residents and boxholders, listing the 32 recommendations of the corridor plan and asking people to prioritize them.

Ken Marsh, a committee member who worked on the initial corridor management plan, said he feels each recommendation deserves to be marked as "most important." The group that worked on the recommendations, he said, spent a long time laboring over and eliminating recommendations they didn't feel were absolutely necessary. What made the list, he said, were what they felt was most vital.

Among the suggestions are several dealing with traffic and pedestrian safety -- a turn lane and 45-mph zone on the Parks Highway near its intersection with Petersville Road and a pedestrian path with paved and unpaved sections along the full length of the road are two examples. Other considerations included a suggestion to reserve a one-mile corridor on each side of the road reserved for public use -- wider in some areas to preserve scenic views. Those suggestions, Jones said, perhaps get to the heart of what caused many residents to protest the previous development plan.

"Most people's main concern around here is not to turn it into a zoo like the north side is," Jones said. "There was no long-term planning there. We do not want that here."

Craig Siebert, also a member of the advisory committee, said another primary concern from area residents he's spoken with is that they are able to continue using the area recreationally.

"Everybody still wants access," Siebert said. At the same time, however, Alaskans seem to long for access to the park without having to board a bus or enter a lottery. The trick will be to provide access without compromising the lifestyle and safety of residents living in the area.

"Alaskans want to get in their car and drive down the road and go to Denali," he said. "The concern I have is the safety of the residents here."

Marsh pointed out that the work of the committee, in reviewing the recommendations of the corridor plan and reiterating their relevance, is as important as any decisions that could be made about the actual development -- whatever form it takes.

"This plan could stand alone," Marsh said. Siebert agreed that things like the pedestrian path, turning lanes and speed reductions could be used in the area today. Many residents walk their dogs, ride bikes or otherwise use the current road corridor and, when hunters flock to the area as they are now, or when pickups towing snowmachines line the road, safety is compromised.

Dusting off the 1998 corridor plan is only the first step in the process, Jones said, but the advisory committee isn't yet sure what the next step will be. Although several at the meeting wanted to know more about the proposed visitors' center that has been discussed for an area overlooking the Tokositna glacier with a spectacular view of the Brooks range and Peters Hills, there was little to know. No decisions have been made, Panarese told one group, and anything that's been talked about to this point has been pure speculation. Those decisions are a considerable distance down the committee's path, although Mat-Su Borough Planning Director Susan Dickerson told the audience comment sheets were available for those who wanted to share their thoughts on a visitors' center.

The comments will be collected until Oct. 10, then reviewed by the committee and their findings will be presented to the assembly.

Area residents or people who use the area are invited to take part in the planning process. Dickerson invited people with comments or who would like to give their recommendations to contact her at 745-9833 or e-mail her at planning@matsugov.us. Area residents can also contact Dave Jones at 733-1851.