Borough staff is working with an engineering team to finish up the design and specifications to put in streets and utilities for the second phase of the Alder Top Village (Keishangita.’aan) residential subdivision near Shoemaker Harbor.
If the borough goes ahead with the project, the street and utility work could be put out to bid for 2025 construction.
Phase II of the subdivision of borough-owned land would make available for sale 20 residential lots, adding to the 20 lots already planned for sale by online bidding and a lottery this coming summer in Phase I.
The timing of the land sale in the first phase is dependent on the arrival of electrical transformers, which the borough ordered in late November. It could be July before the transformers arrive.
There is a 32- to 34-week lead time for the equipment, Capital Projects Director Amber Al-Haddad reported to the assembly last month.
This year’s borough budget includes $1.75 million for putting in utilities and two short streets for the subdivision’s second phase — Sockeye Street and a small extension of Chinook Avenue — but whether to proceed with the work will depend on the success of the land sale in the first phase, Borough Manager Mason Villarma said.
Proceeds from the sale of the first lots — estimated to total at least $1.1 million, depending on the appraised value and bidding — will replenish the borough’s Residential Construction Fund and would help pay for the work to prepare the second-phase lots for sale.
Additional expenses in clearing and preparing the land for the first phase of development pushed the costs to more than $2.5 million, exceeding the borough’s budgeted amount from the development fund. To help cover the overruns, the borough has applied for a $610,000 grant from the federally funded Denali Commission, Villarma said. The commission helps fund road, utility, telecommunication and energy projects across the state.
Lots developed under the second phase will be further back from Zimovia Highway; the lots in the first phase front the highway or are one street back from the road.
If the borough decides not to spend the money on the streets and utilities for the second phase, it could instead sell the undeveloped land to a private party, with the developer paying the costs of preparing the lots for sale and earning any profits.
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