“You’re not listening to the constituents.” MSB votes to pass gravel ordinance-Mayor vetoes

After being postponed from the last Matanuska Susitna Borough (MSB) Assembly meeting, once again the gravel ordinance dominated much of the conversation, as another round of opponents to the ordinance spoke in-person and via telephone, many expressing frustration that the Ordinance is still being debated and losing faith in the Assembly.

“The code that is working should be left in place,” said Ruth Wood of Talkeetna. “You’re not listening to your constituents.”

“It is long past the time that this should have been done, dead and buried. This feels underhanded and deceitful,” said Dan Tucker, who added that there have been too many amendments made to the ordinance, and that signals that something is wrong with the ordinance.

Jesse Sumner, who resigned from the MSB Assembly earlier this year after being elected as a state representative, came out to speak in favor of the ordinance. “I’ve hauled 5000 yards into single site, I didn’t need a permit, and that’s a lot of trucks.” He then said that if the permitting process were to become more restrictive, the more likely people will pull out enormous amounts of gravel. “They won’t care about the land.” He also said that eliminating the permit process would benefit the development of the Mat Su Borough.

“If you got rid of permitting process altogether, you’d take away the hills and speed up development of the Borough.”

When the MSB Assembly began discussion of the ordinance, Assembly member Stephanie Nowers made a motion to postpone indefinitely the ordinance, which would have killed the bill. Her motion was defeated, with Assembly members Nowers, Tim Hale, and Dee McKee voting to kill the bill, while Rob Yundt, Dimitri Fonov via phone, Ron Bernier, and Mokie Tews, who drafted the ordinance, voted to not kill the bill.

After additional amendments, and further discussion, including an amendment to remove ‘The extraction site shall not be within one-half mile of any other small gravel extraction site registered under this section,’ a key component to the ordinance.

“I do think it (the ½ mile between gravel pit sites) blocks other potential, good development,” said Assemblyman Fonov, who proposed the amendment, and argued that it prevents equal rights to a neighbor who want to extract their own material, but cannot if someone is already doing the same.

“We don’t do that to stores, or other businesses, we shouldn’t do that here.”

Other Assembly members were swift in their opposition to the amendment, including Assemblyman Hale, who said:

“Not only we have removed public input, now it can have 3 consecutive properties do the same thing? No, absolutely no.”

Deputy Mayor Yundt, who originally inserted the ½ mile limit, also opposed the amendment, saying “I think it’s the safest thing to do (to leave the ½ mile in). I am worried about taking it down to zero.”

Ultimately that amendment failed 5-2.

When it came time to vote, the MSB Assembly voted as it had in previous attempts, the ordinance passed 4-3, with Assembly members Nowers, McKee, and Hale voting in opposition of the ordinance.

However, in an unexpected move, MSB Mayor Edna DeVries vetoed the passage of the ordinance, saying it is bad policy, a move that was applauded by the audience.

Earlier in the meeting, several opponents to the ordinance urged Mayor DeVries to veto the ordinance if needed.

“Mayor, please, please, please exercise your veto authority because somebody has to care about the constituents.”

A vote was taken to override the veto, which failed, meaning the ordinance fails.

There is no word if it will be resurrected at a later date. This is a developing story.