State eyes land sale 16 miles east of Chickaloon

CHICKALOON — Your chance to own a section of now-state-owned land could disappear later this month.

Public comment on potential remote recreational land staking here will close Nov. 14. So far, the potential offering has received “a handful of comments,” most of them opposed to the offering, said a state official working on the proposal.

The land — 35 miles east of Palmer and 16 miles east of Chickaloon — is part of a parcel consisting of approximately 5,000 acres near the confluence of Gravel Creek and the Matanuska River, in the vicinity of Tatondan Lake in the Monument Creek Remote Recreational Cabin Sites Project Area. A maximum of 600 acres will be made available for staking in parcels of between 10 and 20 acres, according to the state’s preliminary decision for the land. In addition, the land set aside for be closed to industrial mining operations in the same action, a state decision used to prevent mining interests from infringing on the area.

Recreational mining is still allowed according to a state brochure on allowable uses.

Unlike other land-staking areas — five will be made available throughout the state for a February 2015 staking — the Chickaloon properties will be limited to a minimum 10-acre parcel size, said Lauren Rouen, a natural resource specialist with the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

“Within the Mat-Su Borough, because of soil testing that’s required … that could make the land prohibitively expensive,” she said.

This effort marks the second time the state has sought to offer the same piece of land for staking, after the Mat-Su Borough Platting Commission rejected an application last year. The state appealed the decision, and the borough platting commission approved it on appeal, according to background documents and Rouen. However, state administrators withdrew the proposal after several adjacent landowners raised concerns, Rouen said.

“There were definitely concerns about people crossing the Matanuska River,” she said. “Local property owners were concerned that people would try it.”

The state would still need to seek approval from the borough platting commission before offering the land for staking, Rouen said.

The state of Alaska makes sections of state-owned land available for private ownership every other year, according to a Department of Natural Resources packet on the remote recreational cabin program.

Alaska residents can apply for the right to stake a section of the unsubdivided portion of the land. If more than 30 residents apply for a given area, a drawing is held to determine which applicants can stake their claim to the land. When the final applicants are determined, claimants must then stake the land, which means clearing the borders of their claim for appraisal and surveying.

After people stake a claim, they lease the land for a maximum period of five years (at a quarterly rate of between $300 and $600). Before the five-year lease expires, the claimants must buy the land at the appraised value or $1,000 over the costs of surveying the land, whichever is greater, or the land will revert to state ownership.

As the informational pamphlet makes clear, some of the land made available with each staking has been previously surveyed and appraised. Metal monuments containing the name of the department mark the corners of previously surveyed land, though frost heaves, traffic, or “the playful pulling of bears” can mean one or more corners is missing, according the pamphlet.

Submit comments online at dnr.rrcs@alaska.gov.

For more information, visit 1.usa.gov/1x0xCi2.

Contact Brian O’Connor at 352-2269 or brian.oconnor@frontiersman.com. staking will