Wasilla taxpayers the losers in lawsuit over land

Frontiersman editorial board

The land battle is over between the city of Wasilla and Gary Lungren, and Lundgren won his argument … he still lost about half his land, however. In the end, it's hard to tell if the outcome is a win/win, a lose/lose or some other combination of wins and losses. During the process, which has taken four years to meander its way through the court system, Wasilla claimed 70 of the 150 acres in question through the eminent domain process. A judge finally upheld Lundgren's claim to the land, ensuring that he can keep the other 80, or so, acres.

The whole mess began when The Nature Conservancy, in a remarkable example of the left hand not knowing what the right hand was doing, agreed to sell the land to Lundgren, and to the city of Wasilla, at the same time. It's still unclear what The Nature Conservancy thought about the whole mess. At times it seems they favored Lundgren's claim, and at others it seemed they sided with Wasilla.

One thing that is clear is it's going to cost taxpayers more than it could have. The judge not only upheld Lundgren's claim, but he also ordered Wasilla to cover at least part of Lundgren's and The Nature Conservancy's legal expenses. Lundgren says he's spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on court fees. He'll also get fair market value for the 70 acres the city grabbed through condemnation.

If you're paying taxes in Wasilla, you might be wondering why Wasilla didn't just declare eminent domain in the first place and save itself four years of legal wrangling, and its taxpayers a bundle in legal fees. The practical outcome would have been essentially the same, but the economic result would have been favorable to the current situation.

Condemnation is always an uncomfortable decision for a city to make. People get uneasy when government bodies snatch up land that private citizens aren't ready to sell. However, it was clear for more than a year that Wasilla was ready to play the eminent domain card if Lundgren won the legal phase of the argument. Once you've made that decision, it seems irresponsible to spend more tax dollars on a court case that is essentially moot. The city knew it was going to get the result it wanted, one way or another. With that knowledge, it should have chosen the quickest, most cost-effective way to achieve that result. In fact, it actually looks worse when the court supports a private landowner's claim for land the city has already condemned.

In the end, the Valley will get its sports complex. Lundgren will keep half his land, and get at least some of his court costs covered by Wasilla taxpayers. As is often the case when the courts enter the democratic process, the winners end up looking about the same as the losers.