Road upgrade eats up property

June 3,2005

DAWN DE BUSK/Frontiersman reporter

WASILLA - Homeowner Marie Webb left Wednesday's meeting in tears after she heard that the state was pushing a design for the Seward-Meridian Parkway upgrade that would take a 200-foot corridor west of the existing road.

"I am disappointed beyond words," Webb said during an Alaska Department of Transportation & Public Facilities open forum held at Teeland Middle School.

Webb could lose her $204,000 three-story home and one lot when DOT begins an 18-month rights-of-way acquisition process as early as this August. Webb's home sits behind the Sears building, just west of the heavily trafficked Seward-Meridian Parkway.

More than a dozen homeowners and a few businesses, including Image Audio, could be approached by DOT employees to discuss suitable relocation, which will make room for a proposed four-lane highway with a center turning lane and bike paths.

Some of those property owners will need to relinquish only a portion of their land and will be reimbursed at fair market value, according to Mary Jane Sutliff, central region right-of-way agent with DOT.

With right-of-way acquisitions possibly beginning in the late summer, construction is slated for summer 2008.

A rough-estimate cost for the entire three miles of the Seward-Meridian Parkway is $28 million for the west side, and $35 million for the east side.

Those numbers include construction, rights of way and design, according to Cynthia Ferguson, project manager.

A GARVEE bond for $7.5 million must be 85 percent spent by April 2006; the remaining 15 percent of the bond may be used during the next five years, according to Ferguson.

Future funds for the upgrades will come from the state transportation improvement program. Already, the interim signalization at the Bogard Road and Seward-Meridian Parkway intersection has cost $1.5 million. Another $1.5 million was doled out on the environmental assessment document, which is nearing completion, Ferguson said.

With an expected $1 million going toward designs, that leaves $3.5 million to relocate residents to a comparable home or reimburse property owners for the portion of their land the state requires.

Homeowner Dan Aldrich questions whether DOT will have the same view of "comparable home" as he does.

"They might say it's a four-bedroom home, and the plumbing works. But I think comparable is a modern home on an acre lot with a view," he said.

"The public process is a sham. DOT said their objective was to minimize the right-of-way takings," said Suzanne Aldrich.

After 20 years of moving around because her husband served in the military, the Aldriches decided to purchase a home. It's a home she doesn't want to leave.

"I think there's a hidden agenda to take the property and build strip malls," Suzanne Aldrich said.

"For the people along the west side of Seward-Meridian, we don't have plans to purchase their land for any reason other than our road project," DOT Project Manager Cynthia Ferguson said. "We can't use our authority to purchase land for private use - only for public use."

Ferguson explained that the state has a process for selling excess rights-of-way to adjacent owners, allowing them to increase their lot size. In instances in which more than a 200-foot corridor is obtained, the state would keep the land for future expansion.

"On a large arterial road like Seward-Meridian, in the future, DOT might need to add lanes or people might want another bike path," Ferguson said.

Ned Imlach, a retired dentist who lives in a home on a hill overlooking the two-lane road, wants the state to build a retaining wall or plant trees to insulate him from the noise that will be amplified when DOT carves its road into the hillside.

"The traffic noise will come right into my living room," he said, adding that it wouldn't help to go to the back of his house because he has neither a deck nor a view there.

"All the homes off Naomi have killer views. I have a view of the entire Valley, the Chugach Range and the inlet," he said. Imlach doesn't anticipate being relocated since his well and septic are out of range of the proposed corridor.

"Location is everything when you're living someplace," he said.

At the onset of Wednesday's meeting, Webb was informed that unlike her other neighbors, her home could be physically moved onto an adjacent acre-sized lot that she owns.

That option exists only if it is structurally feasible, according to right-of-way agent Sutliff. Providing a proper well and septic system would also be addressed.

"A retaining wall would be my first consideration. But if it comes down to it, I would consider letting them move my house and selling whatever land DOT needs for their fancy, five-lane superhighway," Webb said.

The Aldriches - as well as other neighbors - question the reasoning behind taking personal property west of the road over moving utilities on the east side.

At different public meetings, that have been taking place since January 2004, residents were told by DOT officials that relocating utilities would make the project too expensive, Dan Aldrich said. He said DOT employees later said moving utilities was negotiable.

"At this point, we can't challenge the cost of things because they haven't released it," Dan Aldrich said.

The Federal Highway Administration must first approve the project's environmental assessment document before it can be released to the public, Ferguson said.

However, Ferguson is breaking down the cost of moving utilities on the east side of the road versus buying necessary rights of way on the west side - just for the first mile of Seward-Meridian Parkway.

"I've taken a deep breath," Webb said during a phone call Thursday. "Whatever comes will come. We've lost. It's a sad day in the United States when you work all of your working years to buy the home where you want to retire, and along comes a big company that just condemns and takes the home you love to build a road."

Dawn De Busk may be reached at 352-2252 or dawn.debusk@frontiersman.com.