Wasilla seniors buy land from city

WASILLA -- With a $45,000 check to the city of Wasilla, the Wasilla Area Seniors now own their land free and clear.

For more than 20 years, the group has leased 2.5 acres from the city for its senior center off Knik-Goose Bay Road. Earlier this week, the Wasilla Area Seniors bought the parcel for its assessed value of $45,000.

"The main reason we need to buy the land is we are expanding our kitchen," explained Tim Anderson, executive director for Wasilla Area Seniors. "We have a very little kitchen that we serve 50,000 meals out of annually."

The lease agreement had worked fine for the past two decades, but when the group sought out loans from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fund the construction of the new kitchen it discovered it had to either own its land or have a 30-year lease.

City ordinance does not allow for this long of a lease, and so the Wasilla Area Seniors asked to buy the land. The group was operating on a short timeline in order to begin construction this summer, and Anderson wrote an official request to the city at the beginning of April. A month later, at its meeting Monday, the council unanimously approved the deal.

"They did it very quickly … the city has been very helpful," Anderson said.

The sale also benefits the city, according to Anderson, because Wasilla will no longer have to pay the insurance or security service costs for the property.

Wasilla came to own the land in 1980 when Frank and Dorothy Smith donated it with the provision that it be used for senior purposes. In the 1980s, the Wasilla Area Seniors built the first senior center and then expanded the facility in 1992.

Because this was always the intended purpose of the property, Anderson said the parcel probably should have been given to the Wasilla Area Seniors. But he said it was his understanding that Wasilla ordinances don't allow for this kind of donation.

"If they had the code provision to do it, they would have given it to us," Anderson said. But faced with no other choice, Wasilla Area Seniors paid the city the assessed value.

"It's never easy to come up with that kind of money," Anderson said. "But you have to do what you have to do." He said ongoing projects have enabled the group to set aside some money in savings.

With title to the land in hand, Wasilla Area Seniors will now be able to pursue construction of a 3,800-square-foot kitchen addition, expected to be completed in September.

Also at Monday's meeting, the city council approved a rezone of the senior center's property from residential multi-family to commercial. The rezone will allow for the construction of a 22-room, 30,000-square-foot assisted living center.