Anchorage Daily News

WASILLA -- Owners of the Mat-Su Resort are facing another hurdle in their quest to bring the place back to its glory days.

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Earlier this month, the Matanuska-Susitna Borough notified the resort owners that a newly enclosed deck violated borough code protecting open space near waterways. The borough is also looking into several other potential violations.

Co-owner John Emmi said Monday he is certain the resort can resolve any problems with the borough. A complaint triggered the borough's investigation. Emmi said he thinks someone trying to hurt his business notified officials.

"We're going to come up with some kind of reasonable outcome to correct any situations," he said.

The resort, built nearly 60 years ago, fronts Wasilla Lake at 1850 E. Bogard Road. A partnership took over the business last year. It signed Great Bear Brewing Co. as a long-term tenant but the deal fell through. The resort owners renovated the concrete basement, originally meant for beer-making apparatus, into a tiki-themed nightclub.

They enclosed an outside deck to expand the bar space and flanked the new space with picture windows.

They recently hired a new chef, Gary Murphy, trained at the Culinary Institute of America, Emmi said. Murphy is trying to bring back the original resort menu, with its emphasis on steak and seafood, and smoked ribs fired in the resort's old smokehouse.

The borough notified the owners in January that someone had complained that the resort was making changes to existing buildings too close to the water, said borough code compliance officer Ken Hudson.

Any changes to the original buildings require a core area land-use permit. There is also a 75-foot setback from the lake that restricts most new building in that zone.

The borough and resort owners exchanged correspondence regularly, according to Hudson. He said the resort is cooperating with the borough.

It's possible the resort violated code with the renovations that created the nightclub, depending on how far from the water that part of the building sits, he said. It's also possible the resort violated a rule requiring any new commercial development to apply for a permit so officials can weigh potential effects on neighbors.

The nightclub is not a new use, Emmi said.

The resort has hired a surveyor to map the site and help answer the borough's questions, he said.

Precisely locating the lake's edge may have to wait for breakup.

"We do have the means to correct any problems," he said, adding it's too early in the process to know what might have to be done. "I don't think it's going to be that bad."

Contact Daily News reporter Zaz Hollander at 352-6711 or zhollander@adn.com.