The Eklutna Gathering Center cleared Platting Board approval after 30 years

The Eklutna Gathering Center — a project the Native Village of Eklutna and Eklutna, Inc. have pursued for three decades — cleared a key approval Tuesday when the Anchorage Platting Board approved a preliminary plat and two related variances at its June 17 meeting.

The approval allows the project to proceed without first building an 880-foot Woodspruce Street segment that staff and the petitioner argued would invite misuse rather than serve current needs. The plat subdivides three tracts in Eklutna Village, about 25 miles north of Anchorage at the head of Knik Arm, into two lots; the Gathering Center is planned for Lot 2. The site has been cleared, and heavy equipment is expected soon.

"It has been a dream for 30 years," said Curtis McQueen, the owner's representative and former Eklutna, Inc. CEO.

The project's structural distinctiveness is its joint ownership. Eklutna, Inc. is the ANCSA village corporation for Eklutna, established under the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. The Native Village of Eklutna is the federally recognized tribe. The two entities operate as legally separate institutions, but as McQueen noted, their boards and councils include many of the same people — the village and the corporation share much of the same leadership, and the Gathering Center is intended to serve both as consolidated office and cultural space.

The building's design reflects another piece of Eklutna's recent history. "After the 2018 quake, we decided that we were going to design the building — and we have Stantec, our architects here — to a place where the entire village can muster, gather in an emergency," McQueen said. The November 30, 2018 Anchorage earthquake (magnitude 7.1) caused significant infrastructure damage across the Anchorage region; Eklutna's response was to design its community gathering space to function as an emergency muster point for the village.

The Woodspruce Street variances defer construction of a road segment that would not serve the immediate development; future road improvements for the other lot will be required when that parcel is developed. Board member Patrick Jones supported the deferral. "I feel like if you give the public that much road, it's just an invitation for, you know, people to go back there and nefarious acts, dump, do whatever," Jones said. As part of the approval, the petitioner must dedicate right-of-way for Woodspruce Street and construct improvements to Indian Chief Court and the portion of Woodspruce serving Lot 2, including fire turnaround hammerheads. No reviewing agencies objected to the plat or the variances.

Eklutna is the oldest continuously inhabited Dena'ina Athabascan village in the region, known to many Anchorage residents for the iconic spirit houses at the Eklutna Cemetery. The Native Village of Eklutna and the Municipality of Anchorage have maintained an active intergovernmental relationship in recent years, including the Tribe's recent $196,649 contribution to Anchorage public safety tied to Typhoon Halong evacuee response.