Aviation

Mat-Su weighs new floatplane base on Point MacKenzie

WASILLA -- The Matanuska-Susitna Borough is moving ahead on a regional floatplane base -- the first of its kind in the Valley, home to a burgeoning population that includes scores of pilots.

The proposed facility would accommodate local traffic as well as ease private plane crowding at Lake Hood, the large, regional seaplane base in Anchorage. Some aviators wonder, however, about the out-of-the-way location of the three sites currently being proposed, all on relatively undeveloped Point MacKenzie. Others say the borough and the state should be resolving the floatplane conflict happening right now in the Susitna Valley instead of focusing on a future regional facility.

A survey circulated by DOWL, a consulting firm working with the borough, asks for input on three potential sites winnowed down from a field of 33: a gravel pit; Cow Lake (south of Redshirt Lake); and Seven Mile Lake. The floatplane base is one part of the borough's much broader and ongoing Regional Aviation System Plan.

The consultant has received about 40 surveys back and plans to accept more through this weekend, according to DOWL aviation planner Chris Cole.

"One of the goals of the survey is to get a sense of demand and then see if we've missed something that the public has really been asking for," Cole said. The consultant is also calculating the economic impact of airports from Lake Louise to Skwentna. A final report is expected by April 2017.

All three proposed floatplane sites are undeveloped and at different distances from the road system, according to Archie Giddings, Wasilla's public works director and the chair of the aviation advisory board that's guiding the regional aviation system planning process. Cow Lake would need extensive road building, Seven Mile would require the borough to resolve wetlands mitigation bank issues and the gravel pit would need a water lane constructed, Giddings said.

The initial goal for the floatplane base is just getting land designated, he said. "We're talking a 20-year horizon."

ADVERTISEMENT

Transportation officials say there's a demand for a floatplane base but not a lot of places in Mat-Su where there aren't already homes or trails surrounding lakes and other potential floatplane destinations.

Several commercial operators on Lake Hood said this week they'd prefer to operate out of Talkeetna rather than Point MacKenzie, a 90-minute drive from Anchorage that's without any other tourist draws. The floatplane base would serve private pilots more than commercial ones, they say.

But Talkeetna's floatplane access, at least for commercial operators, has been sharply limited by land-use and recreation plans on the two lakes with seaplane capacity, Christiansen and Fish. Existing air taxi companies can continue to operate but new ones can't come in, several aviation board members said. There's talk of building a floatplane channel at Talkeetna airport, but that could take a decade.

The current process doesn't address the Talkeetna or Susitna Valley concerns, Giddings said. More funding and a new study focus will be necessary to do that.

Wasilla had hoped to create a floatplane facility at the city airport but because of the alignment of the existing runway, an air-traffic control tower would be necessary, and that has not won federal backing, he said.

Willow Lake is already a Federal Aviation Administration floatplane base but plans to establish a state-sanctioned base there fizzled after user conflicts surfaced, according to Allen Kemplen, Mat-Su area planner for the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. Those conflicts included jet skis, noise complaints from residents and a senior center access that overlaps a taxiway.

Steve White, owner of Willow Air Service, said this week that the conflicts have eased and there will always be lakefront residents in any location who don't want a borough floatplane base located in their watery front yard. White favors a floatplane base on "centrally located" Willow Lake.

"When you're going all the way down to Point Mac, you might as well just be going out of Anchorage," he said.

Zaz Hollander

Zaz Hollander is a veteran journalist based in the Mat-Su and is currently an ADN local news editor and reporter. She covers breaking news, the Mat-Su region, aviation and general assignments. Contact her at zhollander@adn.com.

ADVERTISEMENT