Mat-Su Platting Board grants access variance for 13-acre Fishhook Acres split

A landowner near North Wasilla Fishhook Road can now split a 12.98-acre property into two lots, even though the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities denied the property direct access to that road. The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Platting Board approved the variance Thursday.

The board approved the plat of K&K Estates and the variance from borough legal-access code without objection, contingent on seven staff conditions. The lots range from 1.01 acres to 11.99 acres. The state agency required a plat note stating there is no direct access to Wasilla Fishhook Road for any lot.

A board member questioned whether the applicant had made its own problem. "It seems like in this case, the lot that was purchased, which is the 13 acres or whatever, had perfectly legal access, and it's only through their own desire to subdivide it that they've created this problem," the member said. "When you take action to create the problem, does that really fit the criteria for the variance?"

Planning Officer Tyler Young said it does. "The physical restrictions on the property are the buildings existing," Young said. "The hardship created is imposed by DOT." Moving the line inward would force the owners to relocate or destroy an existing building, he said.

Planning staff member Chris Kerlin said the state agency had no objection to the revised lot lines or the variance, and that physical access exists. A geotechnical report by engineer Charles Leet concluded that Lot 1 will have at least 10,000 square feet of contiguous usable building area and at least 10,000 square feet of contiguous usable septic area, as borough code requires. The borough mailed 96 public notices July 13. One member of the public objected in writing.

A neighbors' letter raised wetland and water-rights concerns. Young said any future development would require U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wetland permits, and that the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, not the borough, approves septic systems.

The petitioner's surveying representative, Tim Carmen of Bull Moose Land Surveying, described the easement widths that would come into play on the larger tract. "If any road is to be constructed, there's the 50-foot plus our 40 if any future development happens on the larger tract," he said, adding that the borough's road plans already contemplate developing that route.

After the vote, Young told the board that an unforeseen lull in submittals over the past six weeks meant the meetings scheduled for Thursday, Aug. 20, and Thursday, Sept. 3, could be canceled. The board is set to reconvene Thursday, Sept. 17, with three cases to be heard.