The borough will be required to pay an estimated $30,000 to $40,000 to fulfill a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers mitigation stipulation in order to obtain authorization to fill wetlands for the Mount Dewey trail extension project.
The nearly $1 million trail project will hinge on what is called compensatory mitigation, after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in March found the project will affect 0.55 acres, 0.05 more acres of wetlands than the borough anticipated, Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Haddad said last Thursday. Compensation is not required for the first 0.5 acres of fill, she said.
The project will link the existing trail to Airport Road, as well as connect the Volunteer Park Loop Trail to Ishiyama Drive (Spur Road).
The borough in January applied for a permit with the Army Corps to construct an off-road parking lot for the trail extension. The parking lot and small sections of the trail work will require filling wetlands.
In March, the Army Corps said the borough will have to provide compensatory mitigation, which could cost $30,000 to $40,000, Al-Haddad said.
There are three options: Paying into a program such as the Southeast Alaska Land Trust; purchasing credits in a mitigation bank like the Southeast Alaska Mitigation Bank administered by the federal agency to fund wetlands recovery work; or permittee-responsible mitigation, where the borough sets aside similar, high-value land it has to offset the impact of the project.
Al-Haddad on Monday said the borough would have to set aside 5 acres if it went the route of permittee-responsible mitigation, which is unlikely for the borough to be able to do.
“We have considered that,” she said. “We have set aside a large chunk of land, close to 25 acres of land, for compensation for the new hospital and clinic. That took up a lot of the land that we had available. We really don’t have a lot that is of similar value that we could set aside into a conservation (easement).”
Wrangell has borough entitlement lands, but there is a lot of work that would go into setting that up for a compensatory arrangement. “We’re just not ready for that, and that would completely delay this project,” Al-Haddad said.
Capital Facilities will be looking at a mitigation bank or fee program if the assembly approves the additional funds, she said, adding the request could go to the assembly in June.
Al-Haddad said she’s been working with Economic Development Director Carol Rushmore to find out if the compensatory mitigation cost could be covered by the commercial passenger vessel fund, which is money Wrangell gets from its share of the state’s tax on cruise ship passengers.
“You have to be able to tie the use of those funds to tourism,” Al-Haddad said, as Mount Dewey is used for walking tours and by independent travelers.
“We’re still pushing for it to be a 2022 project,” Al-Haddad said of the trail extension.
The project is estimated at $994,579. Funding comes from two federal grants secured in 2014 and 2021, with a 9.03% local match requirement.
Al-Haddad is developing the final design scope for Juneau-based PND Engineers to finish its work so that the job can go out to bid.
Brandon Ivanowicz, engineer at PND Engineers in Juneau, has been working on the project since last July.
“We have more or less completed our scope of services for the borough — surveying, permitting and concept development,” Ivanowicz said Thursday.
“We will finish the design hopefully within a month or so, and then we will put that out for construction bidding,” Al-Haddad said. The borough is aiming for project completion by the fall, using gravel and local wood products to avoid supply chain delays.
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