A perennial issue is back and forth in front of the Anchorage Assembly -- access to public land.
In the latest case, the Municipality and Alaska Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation spent the last several years developing an access plan to Chugach State Park. Given the extensive border shared between the park and the municipality, such a plan has been needed for a long time. The overall goal is to secure and maintain access to the park for existing and future park users. The plan is a step toward this goal by identifying potential access points, basically locations where users can already access the park but where the access is not secured or formally designated. The identification of such sites is a requirement of the Municipal Land Use Ordinance (Title 21) specifically to guide future planning and zoning decisions.
The Chugach Access Plan now in front of the Assembly is the product of a long and open public process. Drafted in 2010, the public review process included public hearings, open comment periods, open houses, and discussions with community councils, Planning and Zoning work sessions and public hearings, and most recently, testimony in front of the Assembly.
Based on public input, municipal planners clarified the purpose of the plan as a tool that identifies potential access but does not formally designate specific access sites. Unfortunately, some have mischaracterized the identification of potential access as a "takings" rather than recognizing the reality -- the plan is simply a catalog of existing land status. The plan also provides guidance on mechanisms and potential funding sources for securing access but does not include condemnation, in other words, no "takings."
Living next to public land myself, I understand and share concerns about unauthorized access that affects my property, and this is one of the concerns the plan is designed to address. Identifying access points allows future actions such as establishing a trail head (or closing an access point) to be done with neighborhood input to address local and site-specific concerns. Without such a plan and guidance, informal access points can become established without local input or design.
It's time to step back from the rhetoric and see the plan for what it is -- a needed step forward to address legitimate concerns by those who live next to the park and design appropriate access to these beautiful mountains -- it is after all, "our" backyard.
Rosa Meehan is an environmental consultant and member of the Alaska Dispatch News guest editorial board. She is also a member of the Citizen Advisory Board to Chugach State Park.
The views expressed here are the writer's own and are not necessarily endorsed by Alaska Dispatch News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)alaskadispatch.com.