Mat-Su asks AIDEA to build at Point MacKenzie, not on 20,000 acres near Houston

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly told the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority it wants industrial development focused at Point MacKenzie and along the West Susitna corridor, not on nearly 20,000 acres of state forestry and habitat land near Houston the state has proposed transferring to the authority. The assembly passed a resolution to that effect at its Sept. 15 meeting and forwarded it to the state.

The resolution followed a reconsideration, the motion that reopens a vote already taken, which had put an earlier assembly letter on hold. Mayor Edna DeVries described the sequence in her post-meeting video update. The assembly had adopted that letter two weeks earlier on whether to support the state Department of Natural Resources conveying 19,950 acres to the authority. A reconsideration was filed the next day, DeVries said, holding the letter and giving the deputy mayor time to write a resolution.

By DeVries's account the resolution encourages AIDEA to help the borough and the state with the West Susitna Access project and the port project.

The land at issue sits about two miles north of Houston. The Alaska Department of Natural Resources issued a preliminary decision to convey roughly 19,950 acres to the authority at no cost for a multi-use industrial and energy development district, waiving the state's reversionary interest, its right to take the land back. Public comment was set to close Aug. 19 but was extended to Sept. 14, the day before the assembly acted. DNR will issue a final finding and decision. The decision would reclassify about 15,100 acres as settlement land, and lists among its expected effects the loss of public access to state land and reduced access to trails.

The West Susitna Access Project is a proposed 78.5-mile road beginning about 1.4 miles west of Alexander Creek and running to the Whiskey Bravo airstrip and mineral exploration camp. AIDEA and the borough initiated it in 2019 to connect Point MacKenzie to the Yentna Mining District. The project is not new to state funding: the state appropriated $8.5 million in fiscal year 2022 to AIDEA for predevelopment work on the road, meaning the resolution concerns an already-funded, ongoing effort rather than a new proposal.

Assembly member Ron Bernier said at the meeting that the resolution was meant to make clear the borough supports AIDEA and DNR, but at Point MacKenzie.