Mat-Su Assembly pulls Engstrom road reconsideration without debate

Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly member Maxwell Sumner on Tuesday pulled his own motion to reconsider the borough's choice of a $21.6 million northern route for the Engstrom Road to Trunk Road connector, leaving that decision in place.

Sumner was one of four votes for the northern route in the assembly's 4-3 decision in September. A July borough report put the southern option at $9.1 million. The borough administration said then that neither route has construction money.

Sumner filed for reconsideration the morning after that vote, writing that the choice is "too expensive for the limited value it adds." At the start of Tuesday's meeting, he moved to pull it from the agenda. When Assembly member Michael Bowles objected, Sumner moved to end debate. Both votes passed, with Bowles and Stephanie Nowers opposed.

"I don't believe Mr. Sumner has changed his mind that the northern route is way too expensive," Rod Hanson of the North Lakes Community Council said during public comment. "And yet, that's what you just decided, is to leave that decision stand."

Other speakers said the southern route costs less and has landowners willing to provide right-of-way. Not every caller agreed. One, who called in during both comment periods, said the northern route is the better long-term fix and that the southern route would force the borough to widen Engstrom Road and take homes.

Sumner apologized in his closing comments. "It was a mistake for me to file a reconsideration and then pull at the beginning of the meeting," he said. He said he ended debate because the assembly spent about 90 minutes on the route at its last meeting, and a reconsideration would not have had its own public comment period. He said he had second thoughts about the reconsideration and called the southern route "a waste of money."

"The northern route has plenty of opportunity to discuss in the future because we have not funded it yet," Sumner said.

The July report says voters saw the southern route in the 2021 road bond package. Community councils say that bond included $2.5 million for the corridor.

Nowers urged assembly members who back the northern route to take up recommendations from a growth study the clerk sent, such as asking people who subdivide land what they plan to build so the borough can forecast traffic. "If we're serious about taking somebody's land, let's get serious about some of these non-onerous things we can do to avoid another Bogard and Engstrom," she said.

Assembly member Dmitri Fonov said the discussion may run for years. He said the borough will learn more once the planned Engstrom-Bogard roundabout is working.