Anchorage Assembly: Worksession re AO 2026-72, authorizing competitive disposal with conditions of Heritage Land Bank...

HLB annual work program and go before the HLB Advisory Commission for a public hearing and recommendation before being introduced to the assembly for another public hearing and authorization. Because the proposed disposal is pursuant to subsection H, which allows for the competitive disposal of HLB land, in order to facilitate a specific project that will provide public benefits, it is required that the disposal also include conditions to ensure the proper development and completion of the project in the public interest.

So here's the timeline of all the milestones that we have completed with Alaska Natural Burial to bring this disposal before the Assembly. This project is a true testament to going above and beyond code requirements. We performed multiple agency reviews over the years as we fine tuned the scope of the project. We included this project in multiple HLB work plans and received comments and support from the public and Rabbit Creek Community Councils. Over the years, we held multiple meetings, work sessions, and public hearings with our Advisory Commission to ensure that all the public concerns were addressed in the ordinance that was submitted to the Assembly.

HLB staff recommends that the assembly approve this ordinance for several reasons. The use of this property as a natural burial cemetery is compatible with the surrounding open space and recreational uses. There is the direct public benefit that Alaska Natural Burials Project will provide much needed cemetery space for the municipality while also providing the indirect financial public benefit by not relying on taxpayer funding or the passing of bond measures. This project has proven to be one of the most highly supported projects I've ever experienced during my time at hlb. Over the years, we've received dozens of comments of support not only from community councils, but also from the Parks and Recreation Department, Watershed Management Services Division, the Municipal cemetery Director, and a long list of residents and who would love the opportunity to receive a natural burial in such a beautiful location.

With this disposal, we are recommending several conditions to ensure the proper development and completion of the project in public or completion of the project in the public interest. These conditions were created with feedback received from the RFP Selection Committee, agency reviews, comments received from the public and Rabbit Creek Community Council, the HLB work session, and HLBAC public hearings.

Some of these conditions must be completed prior to the conveyance of the property, while some of them will be restrictions and reversionary clauses placed on the deed. Some of them dictate how the cemetery should be managed in the long run, while some of them are specifically for before the first burial takes place. And with that, we are happy to discuss any of the conditions in more detail or any other aspect of the project. Thank you. All right.

Thank you so I will. I'LL remind members too. I'll say one member on the phone. Text me if you want those to be in the queue. Otherwise, get my attention, starting with Mr. Johnson.

Yeah, thank you. I really appreciate how thoughtful and thorough HLB has been in this process. I have a question, but first just want to highlight the fact that for people who are not interested in being cremated, there are very few options in Anchorage these days other than if you have access to one of those privately reserved spots, the cemetery. So just highlighting there that there is certainly unmet demand for people who wish to be a buried in that way. And as was also noted, we tried to increase cemetery capacity through a bond measure a couple years ago that failed.

So at this point, I would say we're in a position where we don't have a whole litany of options to choose from or to accommodate those needs. I want to ask you guys, and I sort of know the answer, but I think it's worth bring it up on the record because it was flagged by some community members. Two concerns. One, that by doing natural burials that we risk either water can contamination or that predators like bears might unearth remains. And can you say that those have been addressed or mitigated?

Yes. So we actually have a couple different conditions on the disposal that we added. The first one is that Alaska Natural Burial is going to work with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to create a document with guidelines for best practices to avoid human wildlife conflict. And that this document will be supplied to HLB prior to disposal. So before conveyance.

And then as far as the groundwater goes, we are. That will be determined through the Title 21 process. And also we have two conditions about the Green Burial Council's natural burial ground standards that address those concerns as well. Thank you. And also, there's no residential wells downstream from where this is going to take place.

It's literally 300 acres of green space. And then. Potter, Marsh.

Ms. Baldwin. Dick. Yeah, thank you. First, I had no idea that there was such a thing as a Green Burial Council. So that is news to me.

I'm curious about the difference. What is the relative difference in cost between a natural burial and sort of your traditional burial or a cremation.

So again, my name is Rachel Bernhardt. I'm with Alaska Natural Burial. Cost is to a certain extent a matter of cemetery policy. We're in a position where Alaska Natural Burial intends to enter the market, for lack of a better term, at approximately the same price point that residents of the municipality are used to expecting from the downtown cemetery here. The other option in town is Angeles, which is off clat.

And they are at a higher price point. I guess that's just the way it is. So. Sure. And what is, what is.

What is the range that we're talking about for natural barrier? Like what are. Yeah. So we intend to be less than $5,000 for reservation and actual internment. Yeah.

And do you. Do you expect to sort of take reservations in advance? Is that sort of how the irregular. Yes, we need reservations is a pretty common cemetery policy. So yes, we do intend on doing that.

Yeah. And how many plots do you anticipate being able to offer? Darn it. We've done the math on that several times, I can tell you. So 9.6 acres.

We are not ever going to have more than 300 burials per acre. So that's the absolute max. And then there's going to be. We're not going to be burying if there's a large tree. That's not a place where our parking area is.

That's not a place where we're going to be running. So it's going to be far less than that. And so 300 burials per acre means that, you know, that that is essentially like a natural burial plot is dedicated in the same way that a traditional burial plot is, Correct, or more or less. Yes. Okay.

Yeah, thank.

You. Okay, I have a couple of questions, but before I go there. Wanting to also give an opportunity for Alaska Nicholas to kind of speak a little bit about your organization,.

You know,. Your intent with this part. So I think it's. We've already been discussing it, but just kind of from your perspective, what you'd like to share.

So I feel super passionately about natural burial in general. My interest in it started from more of a kind of psychological and sociological perspective. Just watching the impact that that has on families being able to participate and be hands on in caring for their family members one last time rather than handing that responsibility over to somebody else. I just thought that that was really beautiful to behold. And as I learned more about it, I became completely enamored by the ability for these spaces to really be multi purpose in a way that conventional cemeteries really aren't.

The idea is that people should be able to visit this park or pass from our boundaries to the Potter Marsh Watershed park and not really perhaps realize that they're, you know, passing from one property to the next or that they are even walking in a cemetery. It should look and still feel like a walk in the woods. And I love that. I love everything about it. And then you Know, learning that the downtown cemetery is almost at capacity and that we're in a position where our neighbors are going to be essentially priced out of a cemetery market I find abhorrent.

So here we are. Yes. Yeah. And just a bit about your organization that you mentioned. You have a board and kind of like so that we understand who would be operating this.

Sure. So yes, Alaska Natural burial is a 501c3 nonprofit. We have a very diverse board right now who is. All of us are volunteering our time right now. All of the donations that we've received are going towards, you know, all of the planning and development that is going to need to be happening imminently.

At a certain point when we get closer to an operational phase, we will be hiring an executive director and program manager staff. All of those things will come into play. Right now we are a 100% volunteer run organization. Just from the board of directors. Yeah, thank you.

Also note, we were joined by member park in person at 1:13. I guess I'll go to my questions then. I think they're, they're really for hlb. So I'll point folks to page four of the memo in our document just to note that those are the conditions. I think that listed.

Some are prior to disposal. I guess just in terms of mechanics. I've seen conditions placed on things through the assembly and I'm not proposing we do that, but the ordinance that we have before us doesn't have those things listed out. So just wondering, or at least not in the actual ordinance. It just says it'll be disposed.

So just maybe clarifying kind of where those live and how they're going to be enforced or managed. Yes. So in my experience, when we have one or two conditions, we put them in the ordinance and when it's a laundry list of conditions, we tend to put them in the memorandum and then refer to the ordinance, to the memo. So under section, section 1, it says under the conditions set forth in the accompanying assembly memorandum provides public benefits. So that's the cleanest way we've found to do that.

Just to not bog down the text of the actual al. Okay, yeah. Thank you for that clarification. And then my other question, it mentions less than fair market value. We can certainly do that for public purpose.

So just to be clear, is the cost zero? Is the cost $1? You know, is it, what, what is value if anything being exchanged here? Yeah. Yes.

So because we are doing this underneath AMC 2540, 25H, we can dispose for less than fair market value because of the Public benefits. I do note in the memo as well that we are proposing a zero dollar sale of the property that is on. It's actually in the second to last paragraph of the. Of the AM.

And typically when we say less than fair market value, it usually means zero dollars just for situational awareness. Thank you. Other questions from members? Yeah. Ms. Baldwin Day.

Thank you. I'm curious if, and I'm assuming the answer is yes, but I'm curious if there's. There is a business plan in place that actually shows the long term feasibility and sustainability of this operation.

Yes. Outstanding. Thank you. And I'm also curious to understand. I mean, I hate to draw this comparison because obviously human bodies and garbage are not the same, but there is a, like a post closure plan for the Anchorage landfill.

Is there something similar with natural burial? Is there like a post closure or like a. Like what happens when this has reached the end of its useful life? What does that look like? That's a super great question and one that I think not a lot of cemeteries think about when they're getting started.

So we have spent a lot of time thinking about that. And there's several mechanisms kind of at play. The first one is that Alaska Natural Burial was very deliberately set up as a. As an environmental conservation organization. So our primary objective isn't actually to own and operate cemeteries, is to take care of this land.

So it's going to be a park. We're going to have programming. It's going to be a place where we happen to also bury human bodies as. And that's almost a tool to kind of fund our other endeavors. There is also a fund that is going to.

A percentage of all of our internment fees that we collect is going to automatically go into a perpetual care and maintenance fund that is not allowed to be accessed until the cemetery is at capacity. So that as this one, for lack of a better term source of revenue, terminates, we have this other pot that we can be pulling from to continue to take care of the park. Yeah, thank you. That's really helpful to understand. I think one of the things that we tend to do a lot here in Anchorage and maybe even statewide is we do these new projects and we have no plan for like long term maintenance or you know, what happens 40 or 50 years from now.

So I'm grateful to hear that that has been discussed at length and that you have a solid plan in place. Thank you. Yes, ma'. Am.

Thanks. Next. Ms. Park. Thank you. I'm just wondering.

I don't see any reference to a specific process for the natural burial. And I'm wondering if you have available for your clients or if your process includes the tree pod burial.

We have a draft operations and maintenance manual that we've been working on. The last time I checked the tree pod burials, if we're talking about the same thing, was a conceptual. If there's an actual product out there that exists, I would be interested in looking into it because it certainly could align with the. With the values that we have and be considered a natural burial.

Thank you. Yeah.

Okay. Any other questions for members? Just checking this one online. I do have one more just generally, and I think this is more for the future. Operator would be assuming everything goes reasonably well, you know, kind of when do you have a timeframe for when you would anticipate.

It sounds like you're, You're. You would be getting basically reservations for spaces. But what would that look like? Is it three years? Assuming again, you don't run into any major snafus.

To clarify, if everything goes well, starting today and moving through all these processes and fundraising and all of those fun things, when will we be doing our first internment? A little bit of an optimist. So I want to. I want to say a year, but it's probably going to be two at least.

Just to be clear. I'm not seeking.

And then two other questions. One is again, in the space of operations, I know at our city cemetery there have been spaces, for example, Jewish community or Catholic, you know, those kind of things. Is that. Is that a way you've thought about kind of organizing it, or is it more kind of like. Like are there different zones or would there be different kind of categories people could opt into?

That's something that we're going to be continuing to talk about. No decision has been made one way or the other quite yet.

And then I think there's a question. Mr. Gates, maybe you could just put your question on the record.

Yeah, sure. It's not really a legal question, but I saw the last sentence. There was no summary of economic effects, but there is, I think, an opportunity cost because we have fair market value which we're supposed to dispose of unless we have this public benefit. So I just had a quick review. I don't know what the fair market value is, but what are we giving up in terms of the opportunity cost by not going for fair market value, instead disposing zero dollar for all the public benefits we're going to receive?

I mean, no objection, but I just wondered what the opportunity cost.

So we did receive an appraisal on the parcel and I included that number in the a.m. let me find it really quick. Just so I can cite is.

I think it's towards the top page three. Correct. So it is just over $500,000.

And. And just to be clear, if this project wasn't to move forward for some reason, this parcel in the past has been considered for a few other different things. And I didn't want to get into all the weeds of all the history of the parcel. It's really extensive. And it was originally purchased to be a school site and then it was deemed not suitable for that.

It's been looked at for residential and it was deemed not suitable for that. So at this point, if it was. And then the municipality agency review showed that there wasn't a municipal need for this parcel, so it likely would just become part of the park. However, this parcel was specifically left out of that project to create an opportunity to have another use like a cemetery. There's not a.

The only other financial information I can cite is the amount of money that the bonds were for to create a new municipal cemetery, which would have been $1.57 million for the book for each. Each of the Girdwood and then the Eagle. Eagle river cemeteries. Not to say that that's how much it's going to cost to set up this because it's a very different model, but just as a comparison that we are going to be creating a new cemetery for residents of the municipality of the municipality that instead of something that would have cost $4.1 million, I guess. But we're also supportive of those.

Those are also HLB projects, so those will likely move forward at some point. But yeah, anyways.

Yeah, thank you. I overlooked the number on page three. Appreciate that. Okay, thanks very much. So I don't see any other members in the queue or flagging me down in person.

So just one last procedural question. You know, on our agenda for Tuesday, we'll have our public hearing and so on. Do you anticipate any S versions or recommended amendments or would from your perspective as staff. Good to go. I believe that this is good to go.

I would expect a robust public hearing.

Yeah. And I think I will just note that I know we've gotten a number of emails. I believe 100% of them have been in support. Unless I didn't see a few today. But yeah, a lot of interest in this for sure.

Okay. Well, I think that concludes our work session. So again, AO202672 will be on our agenda for public hearing. I think it's item 14A. It's in the new public hearings for sure.

Thanks so much for staff and Alaska National Burial for being here. And we will be adjourned. I think this is our last meeting of the day, so thank you, everybody.

Thank you.