Mental Health Trust clears a road easement north of Seward

The Alaska Mental Health Trust will let the Kenai Peninsula Borough run road access across Trust land north of Seward, clearing the way for the borough to reach a hillside it wants to open to development.

The Trust holds land across Alaska and earns money from it to pay for mental health services, so its land office weighs deals against what they return to that mission. In this one, the borough gets a strip up to 100 feet wide, and the Trust gets an easement across borough property to reach land of its own that it says currently has no legal, buildable route in.

The destination is Blueberry Hill, which the borough assembly has designated for community expansion and is studying for road-served development. The easement would follow one of three sketched corridors, though the decision leaves open that the road may end up on none of them.

Fourteen people commented before the decision. Residents of Questa Woods raised road safety, emergency access and the loss of rural character. Others argued the Trust never had the land it was giving up appraised. Executive Director Jusdi Warner signed the decision Aug. 24 without changes.

Anyone who wants it reconsidered has until Sept. 13. Only the people who already commented can ask, and filing costs $500.