The next big Valley growth location is Knik

Knik-Goose Bay Road is becoming one of the most traveled in the Valley. Along the road, home after home, townhouse after townhouse have gone up in recent years. The movement south continues unabated.

All this before the prison is built.

All this while Port MacKenzie is in its infancy.

Shoot, Settler’s Bay has its own gas station/liquor store/convenience store now.

There’s no question a population surge toward the end of the road is inevitable. When the prison is built, commerce will follow. As will more homes.

When the port becomes more active, the same will happen.

Both will provide good-paying jobs and those people will give up the drive to Anchorage and live where they work.

Bluff real estate with Inlet and Anchorage views will be prime properties.

With all that in the future, it’s no wonder the borough and school district are looking at that area for land to build a middle school and a high school.

In the not so distant future, Knik-Goose Bay will be the next Valley city. There will be council members to elect, ordinances to write and codes to enforce.

A small police force will be formed to keep the peace.

It’s the next likely spot for Three Bears to set up shop so residents down there don’t have to drive to Wasilla to shop.

Cafes will open up. Tire and repair shops. Gas stations and liquor stores. The kids will need a skate park. A medical clinic will tend to the injured and infirm.

Undoubtedly there will be a call to move the capital to Goose Bay, making it the most interestingly named state capital in the nation.

All this is to say, now is the time to begin planning how that city and area will grow.

We are witnessing the failures of planning ahead right here under our noses.

Some 30 years ago, nobody thought the dirt road between Palmer and Wasilla would become one of the heaviest traveled in the state.

Now, real estate on each side of it makes it almost impractical to widen to care for the traffic it carries. It’s no longer a highway, it’s a high-speed street with an ever-growing number of traffic lights.

Subdivisions were built willy-nilly back in the day when planning was nonexistent.

The list of planning failures goes on.

With careful planning now, mistakes made in the core area decades ago can be averted before Knik-Goose Bay begins its emergence as the next Valley hub.