Willow residents at odds over senior housing location

JODI SNYDER/For the Frontiersman

WILLOW -- Community members met with landscape architect Burt Lent of Group 3 Designs on Monday, during the regular monthly Willow Area Community Organization meeting, to review a preliminary land use plan for property around the Willow Community Center.

The property, owned by the Mat-Su Borough and managed by WACO, includes 19.2 acres of land with frontage along Willow Lake. The plan also includes the possible development of three additional parcels of state land that could potentially be acquired for the community in the future.

While the plan includes a number of major improvements, including recreational and service facilities, public comments primarily surrounded the issue of whether or not senior housing should be developed on the property.

This is the second time Lent has met with the WACO group. At the group's May 3 meeting, Lent presented two different conceptual land use plans. One plan depicted senior housing on the property; the second plan did not. At that first meeting, WACO members voted to proceed with developing the concept outlined in Plan "A" -- which included locating up to 14 senior housing units on the WACO property.

Several community members voiced opposition to the May vote, because WACO advertised that there would be two public meetings to discuss the land use plan. Residents who were not available to attend the first meeting were surprised to learn a vote had already occurred.

Jim Huston, who made a motion for the vote at the previous meeting, explained to the group that the vote was an advisory one, simply to let Lent know which plan to further develop. But community members expressed frustration that this appeared to lock senior housing into the plan without giving any further opportunity for discussion.

"The vote taken last month was premature," said Claire Fitzgaireld, a Willow resident who is very active in the community. Fitzgaireld requested the senior housing be removed from the plan. "I don't think any of this land should be turned over to any one group," she said. "We need it for the future use of the community."

One concern residents had was that more senior housing units would need to be constructed as the community grows. So why not just build the housing on other land nearby, where it could all be located on a private, much quieter parcel?

"This plan is a long-range guide only," Lent reminded the group. "It's a concept plan, showing where things could be located on the property. There is a long process, a great number of steps that would happen before any of this development would occur."

Lent, a Wasilla landscape architect and planner, is the lead consultant working with WACO on the project, with assistance from Tryck Nyman Hayes. The work is being funded by a grant from the U.S. Forest Service, along with money from the borough, at a cost of about $7,500.

The day after the meeting, Lent said he wasn't sure the community understood his role in the process.

"My work entails showing what can fit on the site. That's my assignment," Lent said. "One thing I was asked to include was senior housing. We discussed it in a previous meeting and the chairman called for a vote. The vote was very much in favor of providing senior housing at the center. That's how it rested after the May 3 meeting. I noticed there was a real effort to raise the issue again at the meeting last night."

Several members of Willow Emergency Services spoke against the proposed senior housing location, stating that the land it would sit on would use a portion of land had been earmarked for future expansion of their facilities.

"We worked for over 10 years to get that land transferred," said one member of the Emergency Services group. They have been developing their own plans for the land for some time, including the construction of a fire training center and expansion of the existing fire station.

Dee Pralle, caretaker of the community center and an active Willow senior center officer, spoke in defense of the proposed location, saying the seniors don't want their own parcel off site; they want to be a part of the community. She added that services are close by if those in the senior housing were in need of emergency assistance.

Another reason cited for using the WACO-managed land over a separate parcel is the proximity of the proposed housing to the existing Willow Community Center, which has a full commercial kitchen that could be used for the preparation of senior meals.

Several citizens attempted to make motions asking that Lent redesign the plan without the senior housing, but Doyle Holmes, who chaired the meeting, said there was likely not enough money to pay for the plan to be revised again. He denied motions that requested removing the senior housing at this point.

At the end of the meeting, Holmes addressed the group.

"This issue has split the community, no doubt. But when you oppose this plan, you may be opening the door for other development, more commercial development along the lake."

Holmes was referring to several lots owned by the state of Alaska, fronting Willow Lake, that WACO would like to see conveyed for community use in the future. "We need to look at the bigger picture here," Holmes said.

Past WACO chairman Ted Smith, who now chairs the Community Development Committee, was instrumental in getting the land use planning process started. On Tuesday, Smith said he intends to meet with the steering committee in the next month.

"We need to make sure everyone understands what we are proposing, and what limitations we have," Smith said. "We are going to need to satisfy everybody, including the [Mat-Su] borough. If that's not possible, we'll have to step back and take another look."

Smith said there would be borough representation at the steering committee meeting.

"The WACO board does not have the last word on this," Smith said. "The borough has to approve it all."

The plan is scheduled for completion July 31, and Lent hopes to present the final plan at the August WACO meeting. He said the community will likely have the chance to vote to accept the plan, reject the plan, or accept it with conditions.

"At that point, if they want a revised plan, then more money would need to be spent," Lent said. "If they approve the plan, I assume it would then move to the borough for approval, planning and platting processes."

Jodi Snyder can be reached by e-mail at jodi@alaska.net.