Wrangell’s Planning and Zoning Commission concluded its discussion of entitlement lands at its Jan. 14 meeting.
Along with the Economic Development Committee, the commission will use its recommendations as a framework for public discussion of possible uses for properties transferred to the Borough from the Department of Natural Resources last year.
Just over 9,000 acres of undeveloped parcels were transferred, encompassing land at Thoms Place, Crittenden Creek, Sunny Bay, Earl West Cove, Mill Creek and other locations on and around Wrangell Island.
The last area left for discussion was Zarembo Island, at its north end around St. John’s Bay.
“This is the fun one,” said Don McConachie, acting as Planning and Zoning chair. “Everybody goes there. We all know it.”
Once the area is zoned and prepared for development, he anticipated it will be a sought-after area, perhaps the most popular in the borough. Most of the area being transferred has already been logged, and commissioners favored keeping any development on the island limited to recreational and residential use, with some opportunity for lumber activity.
“You do have opposite ends of the spectrum for that one,” Commissioner Jim Shoemaker pointed out.
Economic Development had already offered its recommendations for Zarembo back in October, reaching similar conclusions but with agricultural use as a possibility.
Overall, both commissions would like to see the entitlement properties used in a similar fashion as neighboring developments, generally rural residential with some recreational and resource development components. Together, their recommendations will provide a springboard for public workshops and community discussions to come.
In other zoning business, commissioners unanimously approved preliminary plat review to subdivide a Zimovia Highway property owned by Jerry and Judy Bakeberg. They also approved a vacation request for side and backyard setbacks for trailers and a house.
“The reason that we’re separating it is because we have a mortgage,” Judy Bakeberg explained.
The couple’s interest rate will be going up in the spring, and she said they want to separate their residence from the rest of the commercial property, which is a trailer park.
The items were amended to include city staff recommendations, which would maintain a backyard setback for the house at three feet from the property line, a setback to the 10-foot external boundary requirement for trailer parks of only three feet along the south side, and two feet on the north side. Staff also recommended maintaining a 30-foot easement to access the new Lot A; access to electrical distribution along the Loop Road frontage; access to private sewer, water and electrical utilities servicing Plot B; and a public/private utility easement for the force sewer main to the lift station and electric panel.
Economic development director Carol Rushmore also told commissioners she would attempt to bring a representative of the Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office to Wrangell to explain the state’s new rules governing the use and sale of the drug. Voters in the state chose to legalize recreational pot use during a referendum in 2014, making Alaska the third to do so.
Already closely regulated under the new rules, jurisdictional difficulties with transportation could make legally raising and selling the plant on the island impossible.
“It could be very difficult to have,” Rushmore said. However, she felt it would be valuable for the community to better understand where things currently stand.
The city already took some steps to limit use of the drug, with the Assembly in March 2015 passing an ordinance that prohibits marijuana usage from public spaces, defining their extent, and making violations subject to a $100 fine.
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