Zoning vote a possibility

MAT-SU -- The Mat-Su Borough Assembly will discuss in July whether to put the issue of zoning to a public vote.

Assembly member Dan Kelly, at Tuesday's meeting, introduced what some assembly members called a preemptive motion to put to borough voters a second advisory vote regarding zoning.

Assembly member Jim Colver pulled for discussion the introduction from the list of items to be discussed at the May 7 public hearing. Because he pulled the issue, he was given the first chance to speak to it.

Colver first referred two other topics that were on the assembly's agenda that evening. A veto enacted by Mat-Su Borough Mayor Tim Anderson last month was on the evening's agenda and had already been discussed and upheld. The mayor vetoed a motion to direct the planning commission to deliver to the assembly a conditional-use ordinance by June 4 that would address specific nuisance uses in the core area.

The motion also directed the commission to take all the time needed to complete a Euclidian zoning ordinance. Anderson had vetoed the action because borough attorney Michael Gatti advised him that such a potentially weighty issue should be advertised so the public is informed. A motion mirroring the vetoed motion was also on the meeting's consent agenda.

"All we've done is kind of get everybody all stirred up," Colver said when addressing the issue. "We don't have anything before us … we need to work through this issue before we decide to put this on the ballot."

Kelly took offense to Colver using the issue to, as he saw it, insult him for acting too soon.

"I don't appreciate being insulted or trying to be insulted by any of the assembly," Kelly said. "So help me, you'd better not ever do that again."

Kelly said his motion would allow people to vote on whether they, according to his suggested ballot language, believed the borough "should consider implementing zoning changes in that your precinct in accordance with the comprehensive plan in your area."

"Some people have different options about the need for zoning for their area," Kelly said. "It makes it difficult to come to any consensus."

Kelly added that the vote would not preclude the planning commission from continuing work on the zoning document.

"This ordinance does not suggest or imply that the planning commission should cease and desist," Kelly said.

Assembly member Sara Jansen said she supported bringing it to a vote, but making a decision too early on exactly what to vote on could prove counter-productive.

"The planning commission has sent us a memo that says, in good faith, they will have something completed by the end of May," Jansen said. "… a little bit of time and a little bit of perspective is helpful."

Assembly member Talis Colberg said he agreed.

"I think the idea is premature," Colberg said. "What were to happen if we were to say that this should go forward and … a couple months later, we were to defeat the zoning ordinance? You have to first deal with whether or not we have an ordinance to vote on."

The motion to introduce the ordinance at the assembly's scheduled July 16 meeting passed, with Kelly and assembly member Kelly Lankford Ladere in opposition. The overall motion passed unanimously.