Mat-Su voters will decide in November whether the borough can build roads areawide

Mat-Su Borough voters will decide Nov. 3 whether the borough may use areawide tax money to buy public rights-of-way and to design and build roads, streets, sidewalks and drainage. Those powers now belong only to individual road service areas.

The Matanuska-Susitna Borough Assembly adopted the ordinance Tuesday over the objection of one member.

The borough manager told the Assembly the change would not alter how road service areas maintain their own roads. It would let the Assembly put road projects into the annual capital budget and pay for them with areawide revenue. He said the current structure cannot carry large corridor work such as the Bogard-Seldon corridor. There, he said, one service area would shoulder a divided four-lane highway serving traffic from across the valley. "We still have over 300 miles of unmaintained roads in this borough, and we haven't done anything to improve that in years," he said.

Assembly member Bowles moved to strike "rights-of-way" from the measure and insert "easements." He argued that a landowner could keep farming or living on ground the borough might not need for 15 or 20 years. The borough attorney said the substitution would bar the borough from buying land outright. "If you said easements in this ballot question, you would not be able to acquire the land," he said. The amendment failed, with Bowles the only member in support.

Assembly member Nowers supported sending the question to voters. She said most areawide money is raised in the urban parts of the borough. If it were spent disproportionately in rural areas, she said, "that I think would be sort of a transfer of funds," and a future assembly should watch for it.

A member of the large road service area board testified that the board voted in favor of putting the question on the ballot, with one member abstaining. Another testifier asked the Assembly to make clear to voters that areawide means borough-wide.

One supporter, Michelle Heun, testified that acquiring rights-of-way before roads are built would cost less and work better than waiting until land has been developed. She said providing local match and project design also increases the borough's competitiveness for discretionary grants. As stated in borough documents, she said, the ordinance itself does not impose a tax increase.

Residents have also raised concerns about the potential cost of major road work. At the Assembly's May 19 meeting, Meadow Lakes resident Esther Huddleston estimated that rebuilding Meadow Lakes Drive would cost her road service area $10 million, and Meadow Lakes Loop another $5 million. She said the service area does not have that money.