PETERSBURG, Alaska (AP) - Alaska lawmakers have approved legislation that increases the size of the Petersburg Borough’s land grant from the state to include more than 14,600 acres (5908.54 hectares).
The southeast Alaska borough is only entitled to about 1,400 acres (566.57 hectares) under state law and is looking to develop or sell off some of the additional property approved by the Senate on Monday, KFSK-FM reported (https://bit.ly/2nAv7Xy).
The bill would transfer 95 percent of the available state land in the borough that hasn’t already been designated for another use.
The state Department of Natural Resources has valued the additional land the borough is seeking at about $70 million.
Lawmakers had expressed concern about approving the land transfer, citing the state deficit.
“I’m not so concerned about the number of acres but the value of acres because like you said we’re in tough times, in Petersburg, but we are as a state as well,” said Anchorage Republican Senator Kevin Meyer. “So for me to go back to my hometown of Anchorage and say well we just gave 68 million dollars’ worth of land to the Petersburg borough, we have to justify that in these time when we’re $2.8 billion in the hole.”
But borough officials say the land will help diversify the region’s economy
“It may be suitable for development for tourism opportunity,” said Liz Cabrera, the borough’s community and economic development director. “There’s also some property that could be available for resource development, specifically sand and gravel.”
The borough could also use some of the property to build residential homes, increasing the property tax base for the borough.
In persuading lawmakers to approve the additional acreage, Petersburg Borough officials have also argued that it would be in line with legislative land grants approved for other Alaska municipalities. Of 18 boroughs, 15 have received land grants through the legislative process. The most recently awarded grants went to Haines and Wrangell in 2010.
The Petersburg Borough land grant bill now moves to the House for consideration.
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Information from: KFSK-FM, https://www.alaska.net/~kfsk/
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