Willow hoping it won’t be railroaded

WILLOW — Some Willow residents are concerned that the process for choosing a rail extension route to Port MacKenzie is picking up steam — and heading to public hearings — before the community has a chance to draft a comprehensive plan to submit to the Mat-Su Borough Assembly.

Borough Manager John Duffy said a letter sent to some members of the Willow community imposing a Nov. 1 deadline to finish a transportation planning process that hasn’t been started yet was unfortunate and there is no “artificial deadline.”

“With that kind of letter they should be annoyed,” said Duffy, who met with the Willow Area Community Organization last month and offered assistance in the form of Borough consultants to help the Willow community group get its area plan off the ground. Duffy said he had not seen the letter.

Some communities have resisted drafting comprehensive documents meant to help the Borough plan future land uses, Duffy said. “It’s actually very comforting to know a community wants to get together on a comprehensive plan.”

He said the Borough’s intent was to gather as much information as possible about a community’s preferences for ground transportation uses, including feelings about the rail extension, before the environmental process for the port’s rail spur closes this winter.

A track route that bisects the Willow community was the first choice that came from a 2003 rail planning process, to the chagrin of many in the area, including landowners who don’t want tracks near cabins and some users of the area’s many lakes and trails. The Borough and the Alaska Railroad Corp. are re-opening other options, but hope to close public testimony and environmental reviews in December.

Willow voted earlier this year to start the lengthy comprehensive planning process the Borough asks of its communities.

Last week, Willow Area Community Council Chair Linda Oxley said the Borough sent a letter asking Willow’s panel to get ground transportation issues settled by the first of November. At the same time, open house workshops on possible rail routes to the port were announced, including an Oct. 3 meeting in Willow, and the rail project’s timeline for ending design review and picking a route was set for December.

Most people in Willow oppose starting the port line there, Oxley said, adding she predicts the community would “resist every effort” to use the Willow area route.

Willow’s leaders hoped the 36-member planning body could tackle some softer issues before diving into potentially contentious ones, she said. “Ground transportation may be controversial.”

The new rail route, 30-45 miles long, could cost $300 million. Oxley said the railroad plans to have trains running by 2012.

The Borough and railroad are gathering information until December while drafting environmental impact documents. The new line would link the port to the Alaska Railroad and provide freight — and potentially passenger — service for the first time to the Borough’s only port facility.

Although bringing the tracks through Willow was the preference of the 2003 study, rail planners now say they’re open to using some other point as an access route and may create a new route based on public input. Other identified routes are east and west of Houston, with tracks heading south from there, and a route with tracks running through the Big Lake area.

The process, planners say, is moving ahead. Railroad outreach coordinator Stephanie Wheeler could not be reached for comment.

Planners acknowledge in their report that the spur would likely open up new export markets for minerals mined in the interior and could lead to the development of a new cement industry to serve a growing market in a developing world.

The Willow Chamber of Commerce has proposed using land near the existing Willow airport to develop a historic town site, something the Borough regulates and which its archaeologist hasn’t yet studied, according to Borough spokeswoman Patty Sullivan.

But the chamber got some bad news from state Department of Transportation officials, who last month said the state may need the land for a runway extension someday. It won’t allow any permanent structures on the wooded land or transfer it to the Borough so it could be given to Willow for public or private uses.

The Willow open house takes place from 6-8 p.m. Oct. 3 at the Willow Community Center, Mile 69.5 of the Parks Highway. It will feature one-on-one discussions with the project’s planners. Each event will include an overview presentation beginning at 7 p.m.

Contact John Moses at 352-2270 or john.moses@frontiersman.com.