Smart growth takes smart planning

Growth has brought many changes to the Mat-Su Borough. Big box retail, more crowded highways and longer lines at area checkout counters are balanced by more consumer choices and a healthy economy.

For local governments, balancing the needs and services of a growing population with the Alaska free spirit of independence and minimal bureaucratic regulation sometimes crosses a few highwires balancing a milk bottle or two. How much — or how little — regulation the Borough or a local municipality should have on private property will always be hotly debated. The Mat-Su Borough Assembly made a tough decision last week to extend Bogard Road east to the Glenn Highway using the most direct route possible. Two days later, the Borough’s new land use permitting process went into place.

Whether the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few — or a single landowner — is difficult to assess. We give credit where it’s due to the assembly for making a tough decision even when pressured by its own planning commission to side with none of the above. Ultimately, the only sensible move to help alleviate the unsafe and grossly overcrowded Palmer-Wasilla Highway is to extend Bogard.

Another sensible move some lament as an assault on private property rights is the new land use permit fee for new construction in the unincorporated areas of the Borough. Prior to Thursday, a landowner didn’t need a permit to build basically whatever he wanted on his property. Problems would arise when it was discovered after the fact that homeowners or contractors didn’t follow the rules when building anything larger than a two-car garage. Supported by the Mat-Su Homebuilders Association, the small fees are not building permits; rather, land use fees that simply help make sure a planner gets a gander at what’s planned to make sure the plan is sound and is allowed under current Borough regulations.

This is reasonable and a sensible move that will ultimately mean better quality construction, fewer safety issues, better watershed protection and higher property values for all. For example, Gary Foster, president of the local homebuilders association, is dealing with a problem where a contractor arrived on a property to begin building a home only to find neighbors had already built a shed on the wrong side of the property line. Had the land use permit process been in place, a simple application and $25 fee would have revealed the potential conflict before it happened.

Nobody welcomes government sticking its nose into our business more than necessary. As the Mat-Su Borough continues to be the fastest-growing region of the state, smart and useful land use management tools will be important to protect private property rights as much as possible while managing the needs of all.

We’re pleased the Mat-Su Borough recognizes this and encourage local officials to continue to plan for growth today rather than reacting to it after the fact. Had we done a little more of this in the past, perhaps the Bogard extension decision would have been less of an emergency and more an extension of smart growth planning.