Willow-area owners ask Mat-Su to let them split 40 acres without building a mile-plus road

Three owners of a 40-acre parcel near Willow are asking the Matanuska-Susitna Borough Platting Board to let them split it into two lots without building the road borough rules would otherwise require. The board takes up the request at 1 pm Thursday, Nov. 5, in Palmer.

Kathleen Walker, Warren Henry and Adam Deal want to divide the parcel, to be called Deception Bluff, into two 20-acre recreational lots south of W. Willow Fishhook Road. They are seeking a variance, an exception to borough code, from the requirement to build physical access to the lots.

Platting Technician Chris Curlin recommended approval with seven conditions, according to the Nov. 5 hearing packet.

Surveyor Owen Dicks wrote Aug. 31 that the parcel is more than a mile from the nearest constructed road but has legal access through a section line and public access easements. Borough code lets land outside a road service area be subdivided without building physical access, he wrote. This parcel sits at the extreme southern edge of the Greater Willow road service area, so the rule would mean building about 6,800 feet of road, which he wrote would cost far more than the property is worth.

"Construction of access is financially unfeasible for this remote property," Dicks wrote. Nearby parcels appear to be used for recreation and are reached by ATV and foot trails, he wrote, and granting the variance would not change existing conditions.

Borough engineering and permit staff, ENSTAR and GCI raised no objections, and the public submitted none. The Willow Community Council, the Greater Willow road service area and the borough's emergency services hadn't responded when the staff report was written.

In May, the board approved a four-lot subdivision near Montana Creek and waived the requirement to build an improved road there.

Written comments are due by noon Wednesday, Nov. 4, and people may also testify at the hearing.