The Alder Top Village subdivision is slated to bring 20 new residential lots to the community in its first phase, hopefully by 2024. Borough officials are optimistic that the additional lots will alleviate the community’s housing shortage.
But the borough must tread carefully as it develops a portion of the 134-acre parcel because of its environmental and historical significance.
Last month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers issued a permit to fill wetlands at the site and approved the borough’s wetlands mitigation plan. This plan is intended to offset the environmental impacts of filling in 3.36 acres of wetlands to develop the property.
The borough is still working on its monitoring plan to identify, protect and document any Alaska Native cultural resources that may be uncovered onsite.
If monitoring plan approval comes through in the next two months, the borough will be on track to start road and utility work in mid to late summer — a “best-case scenario” timeline, according to Capital Facilities Director Amber Al-Haddad.
The property used to house the Wrangell Institute, a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school that closed down in 1975. The borough has owned the property since 1996.
Based on the scope of the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) project, the Army Corps, which regulates wetlands development and protection, determined that the borough would have to purchase wetlands credits from a mitigation bank to compensate for the area filled. The cost will be $148,406.
The credits will have to go toward “palustrine” wetlands — the same type that the borough will fill in for development. Palustrine wetlands are filled with vegetation and not attached to a river or tidal system. They provide essential breeding grounds for a wide variety of species.
“The wetlands analysis that was done out there, you have to value those wetlands and look at what types of wetlands there are,” explained Carol Rushmore, who is retiring this spring as the borough’s economic development director.
“There’s palustrine wetlands … there’s forest wetlands. They all hold different values,” she said. “When it comes to adding up what your mitigation requirement is, it’s based on the types of wetlands and the value they hold.”
The mitigation plan will cover the borough’s road and utility development throughout the property. Individual property owners may be responsible for mitigation of their own, depending on their plans for development, Rushmore told the borough assembly March 14.
The borough will also develop a monitoring plan for any Alaska Native historical or cultural resources they may uncover during utility and road construction.
Such plans are “essential to ensure that professionals are on site to quickly and respectfully respond should a discovery of unmarked graves or archaeological deposits occur,” added Lorraine Henry, public information officer for the State Historic Preservation Office.
The monitoring plan will “detail the field methods to be used by the monitor, locations that will be monitored, the reporting requirements for the project, and consultation or notification protocols in the event of a discovery,” Henry wrote in an email.
Borough officials are in the process of preparing this plan in collaboration with R&M Engineering and True North Designs. Once the plan is complete, they will submit it to the Corps and the State Historic Preservation Office for approval.
Rushmore hopes that the plan will be completed and approved before the end of May. “What we’re trying to do is have them onsite while we’re doing all of the clearing and the grubbing,” she said, “so that they don’t have to come back later when we actually construct the roads.”
The borough is collaborating with the Wrangell Cooperative Association, which plans to apply for a grant through the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. “Hopefully, they will be able to come up with the funds for monitoring,” said Rushmore.
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