Ski area still on Assembly’s mind

PALMER — Work to bring a ski area to Hatcher Pass continues apace with pieces of the project possibly coming to the Borough Assembly this year.

Ron Swanson, the consultant the borough hired for the project, gave an update of progress thus far at a joint meeting of the assembly and the borough’s planning commission on Tuesday.

Right now, he said, they’re doing preliminary work with Federal Transit Authority money to draft plans for access roads and parking at the site. Swanson and his colleague said they hoped to be back in the fall with a plan for what that might look like.

In May, Swanson said, they plan to go back out for another round of public input on the plan.

Work on the Environmental Impact Statement, which began last summer, is also moving ahead steadily, and so far, so good — no eagle’s nests or any other serious hindrances to the project.

Swanson said he’s also drafted an ordinance setting up some sort of Hatcher Pass Authority to run the show. The plan, as of now, calls for Alpine and Nordic skiing areas, both of which will be run by the authority.

Swanson said the authority would be akin to the Alaska Housing Authority or the Alaska Railroad — an independent corporation closely tied to the borough. Just as the state appoints railroad board members, the assembly would appoint Hatcher Pass Authority board members. Employees would answer to that board.

“These employees would not be employees of the borough, they would be employees of the authority,” Swanson said.

One part of the materials Swanson prepared for the meeting caught the eye of Planning Commissioner Mark Masteller — an analysis for commercial and residential development in the area. That particular question has been fraught with controversy. The planning commission has previously expressed reservations about opening the area to that sort of development.

Swanson said the plan isn’t to decided one way or the other whether regarding residential or commercial development. The study is aimed at putting more information on the table, to answer some lingering questions that seem to crop up whenever plans are discussed — namely, whether the area could even support that kind of development.

“The ultimate decision of whether there is going to be residential or commercial or not is going to be decided at another time,” he said.

Assemblyman Mark Ewing said he doesn’t want to see development of that sort. He also said he’d like to see if they couldn’t split the project in half.

“The snowboarders far outnumber the Nordic skiers in Hatcher Pass on any given day,” he said. “I don’t know why we’re not concentrating on one aspect.”

Contact Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270