Legislature(2017 - 2018)BUTROVICH 205
04/05/2017 03:30 PM Senate RESOURCES
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SB88 | |
| SB28 | |
| SB89 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | SB 28 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| *+ | SB 89 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| += | SB 88 | TELECONFERENCED | |
| += | SB 65 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SB 28-MUNICIPAL LAND SELECTIONS: PETERSBURG
3:37:07 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL announced consideration of SB 28. She said it
authorizes a land conveyance to the Petersburg Borough of 14,666
acres from unallotted state land.
SENATOR BERT STEDMAN, sponsor of SB 28, Alaska State
Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, stated that this is a simple
borough expansion bill to align the Borough of Petersburg with
land expansions in other boroughs as required by the Alaska
Constitution.
MELISSA KOOKESH, staff to Senator Stedman, Alaska State
Legislature, Juneau, Alaska, said this bill would give the
Petersburg Borough a chance to grow, generate revenue, and
increase economic development from nearby lands. Over the last
several months, Senator Stedman's office and representatives
from the Petersburg Borough have reviewed the bill with the
Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and discussed where the
borough selections would occur, and they have no objection to
the bill.
CHAIR GIESSEL asked for a sectional analysis.
3:39:14 PM
MS. KOOKESH said section 1 adds subparagraph 16 to
AS.29.65010(a), setting a general land grand entitlement to the
Petersburg Borough of 14,666 acres, an increase from 12,770
acres above what the borough would otherwise receive.
Section 2 is a conforming amendment to allow the borough time to
make its additional selections.
Section 3 is also a conforming amendment to allow the land
selection process at DNR to apply to the new Petersburg land
selections.
Section 4 is an immediate effective date.
3:40:10 PM
LIZ CABRERA, Director, Community and Economic Development,
Petersburg, Alaska, supported SB 28. She said it sets the
general land entitlement of Alaska's newest borough to be
comparable to the land entitlement received by all other
boroughs in the state, an amount equal to approximately .70
percent of a borough's land mass, which, in Petersburg's case,
is 14,666 acres.
She explained that the Petersburg Borough is located in central
Southeast Alaska and encompasses an area of 3,800 square miles
of land and sea. The borough's population center is located on
the northern tip of Mitkof Island, which is home to a diverse
and prolific commercial fishing fleet and three major seafood
processing facilities.
In 2013, the residents of Petersburg voted to form a borough for
a number of reasons, which included having a greater say on
land-use decisions in the surrounding area and having an
opportunity to increase their municipal land base, and many also
felt it was very important for all area residents to support
their school system through local taxes.
3:41:40 PM
SENATOR VON IMHOF joined the committee.
MS. CABRERA continued that about 12 months after borough
formation, Petersburg received a general land grant entitlement
certification from the state indicating it was entitled to 1,896
acres under AS 29.65.010. However, this amount was reduced by
457 acres that was already received by the City of Petersburg,
even though certain tracts of the city's 457 acres is restricted
from development and only available for public, charitable, or
recreational uses. After deducting the 457 acres, the borough's
land entitlement was set at 1,438 acres. Putting this into
context, this is approximately one-third the size of Anchorage
International Airport.
She explained how the DNR used a statutory formula in the
calculation. A municipality is entitled to 10 percent of vacant
unappropriated and unreserved (VUU) land within its boundaries.
The lands available for selection are designated as VUU by the
State of Alaska. These lands were unclassified or classified as
agricultural, grazing, materials, public recreation, settlement,
and resource management. But, for the most part, no development
has occurred on any of the state's VUU land.
Why so small? She said the majority of land within the borough,
over 96 percent, is managed by the federal government as the
Tongass National Forest. Of the non-federal lands within the
borough, 1.73 percent is owned by the Goldbelt Corporation, 1.34
percent by the State of Alaska, and .4 percent by the Alaska
Mental Health Trust and University of Alaska. Only .3 percent is
in private ownership, and a mere .04 percent is owned by the
municipality. When DNR applied the land entitlement formula to
the Petersburg Borough, only a very small amount of land
remained in VUU status.
They realized their entitlement was inadequate for what they
were hoping to accomplish and that other boroughs also received
small land entitlements, initially, but were able to increase
these through legislation. The most recent example was in 2010
when both Wrangell and Haines received additional acreage. In
the late 1990s, the Lake and Peninsula Borough and the Yakutat
Borough had their land entitlements set through legislation.
MS. CABRERA said this is important to Petersburg, because just
over 96 percent of its land base is federally managed, and of
its non-federal lands, the major land holders are the Goldbelt
Corporation and the State of Alaska. In short, while the borough
itself is large, the majority of its land is not and will never
be included in their local tax base, and most is not available
to generate economic returns for residents or the state.
3:45:16 PM
The Petersburg Borough would like the opportunity to move some
of these lands into private ownership and add them to its tax
base as residential or commercial developments. They want the
opportunity to secure resource development through new sources
of rock for construction, road maintenance, and other projects.
In general, they would like the opportunity to be more
economically self-sufficient, and 1,400 acres simply does not
provide enough developable land to support these goals.
MS. CABRERA explained that the DNR has stated it does not
generally voice support for this type of legislation, but
neither does it oppose the request. The borough provided a
general outline of the lands they would select under SB 28, and
DNR did not express any concerns about these potential
selections.
Lastly, Ms. Cabrera said the committee knows that these are
difficult times and in its own small way, Petersburg wants to be
part of the solution, not a casualty of the crisis, and an
increased land base is a key component to the long-term
sustainability of the municipality.
3:46:28 PM
SENATOR STEDMAN asked her to explain her position in the
borough.
MS. CABRERA said that she is the Community and Economic
Development Director and works directly with the local planning
commission; she has also been the staff for their ad hoc land
selection committee, a group of residents that have developed
criteria and done some land selections already. She also works
with the local Economic Development Council.
SENATOR MEYER said he wasn't as concerned about the number of
acres as to their value, and asked how this compares from a
dollar standpoint to other boroughs that have been formed and
been given land.
MS. CABRERA answered that historically fiscal notes weren't
attached to any of the land conveyances, so they don't have a
number. But if you were to apply DNR's number, the value for
Fairbanks' land grant would have been $602 million, and
Anchorage's would have been $241 million. So, Petersburg's is
relatively small both in acreage and in dollar amount compared
to the other municipalities.
SENATOR MEYER said it would be better to compare it to other
boroughs in Southeast where there isn't as private much land.
MR. CABRERA answered that Wrangell's land was valued at
$51,600,000, using the DNR number.
3:49:15 PM
MARTY PARSONS, Deputy Director, Division of Mining, Land and
Water, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), Anchorage, Alaska,
answered that question explaining that they were asked by
another committee to provide a number for the additional lands
based on potential land sales, material development, timber
values, and those types of things and they had not done that in
the past for other Southeast communities.
SENATOR MEYER said that sort of answered his question.
MR. CABRERA clarified that she was using the number DNR came up
with. It's not like that number was attached to the legislation,
so it's not necessarily apples and apples.
SENATOR HUGHES noted there is no fiscal note, and asked if she
has until October 2018 for land selections and if that is
adequate. She also noticed the commissioner didn't have a
timeframe for approval and asked if that is normal or
problematic.
MS. CABRERA replied that it can be accomplished by the date, but
it would be nice if DNR had a timetable. They have been told it
it's a matter of years before the conveyance would be completed.
SENATOR HUGHES asked if she is aware that any of the past
legislation had included a timeline for the commissioner.
MS. CABRERA answered none that she has seen.
SENATOR HUGHES asked that question of DNR.
MR. PARSONS commented that normally those timeframes are not
included in this kind of legislation. They work with statutory
requirements that have to do with when the actual selections are
received from the borough; some of which are rejected.
Completing a conveyance is an interactive process he said.
SENATOR HUGHES asked if he knew of any cases that have a
timeframe in statute.
MR. PARSONS said he had not seen legislation with a timeframe
attached to completion of a conveyance.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked Mr. Parsons to describe the 14,000
acres.
MR. PARSONS answered the lands are varied; some are close to
Petersburg, some are outlying as in Thomas Bay, some are
settlement lands and some lands the state could have used for
material sites for road construction. Some of the land has
timber value and some is muskeg, but some areas are relatively
high-value residential subdivisions.
3:53:49 PM
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if he could figure out the value of
the lands that were provided for Wrangell and Anchorage in
relation to the proposed 14,000 acres in this bill.
MR. PARSONS replied they looked at lands that were available for
settlement: both high-value lands and not-so-high value. They
looked at estimated timber resources and a base value per acre.
They also looked at certain material sites that they had a
revenue history on, and that's where the number of $68,638,000
came from.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI responded that they just got the fiscal
note, and asked if he had estimated $5,375/acre.
MR. PARSONS answered yes.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked how this acreage compares to what
would be given to a borough and if he department had done any
sort of comparison like that.
MR. PARSONS answered the department did not do a calculation on
Wrangell, but rather negotiated quite heavily with them to reach
a solution. For the acre number, he normally calculates 10
percent of the VUU land, which according to statute is what is
made available for the municipal entitlement. In this particular
case, the 14,666 acres calculate out to about 95 percent of the
borough's VUU land.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if the standard for VUU land is 10
percent and if he is saying that all the other communities have
10 percent of it. Statutory exceptions were made for Haines at
21.3 percent and Wrangell at 44.2 percent, and he wanted to know
what percent the Petersburg entitlement is.
MR. PARSONS replied the Petersburg entitlement is approximately
95 percent of the VUU land within the borough boundaries.
SENATOR WIELECHOWSKI asked if he has a position on that and if
it is a reasonable amount.
MR. PARSONS answered that DNR normally doesn't take a position
on this issue, but leaves it up to the committee to determine.
So much of the land in Southeast is the Tongass National Forest.
The same is true for Wrangell.
SENATOR STEDMAN added that Sitka Borough is the same. It's
virtually all Tongass National Forest and very little private
land.
3:58:34 PM
CHAIR GIESSEL asked about the borough's economic base and how
this land will be of value to Petersburg residents.
MS. CABRERA replied that commercial fishing and seafood
processing is the primary economic force in Petersburg. With
this land they could diversify: some remote property could be
suitable for development for tourism, and some property could be
available for resource development, specifically sand and gravel
sites. She explained that generally muskeg needs to be filled in
before one can build on it, and their supply of good gravel is
running out. Some parcels are suitable for settlement into
private hands and onto the tax base.
SENATOR STEDMAN remarked that families used to live in Cleveland
Passage and Whitney Island 100 years go and it used to have a
post office. Now it's grown over. So, some of the land has been
used before, which could provide planning opportunities. He was
not too sure about the timber value, because it is all broken
up.
4:03:18 PM
SENATOR MEYER asked if she intends to subdivide this land for
homes and businesses, which he thinks this is a great idea, but
he didn't want to give away all this acreage to be made into one
large park.
MS. CABRERA responded that they live in the middle of a big park
already.
CHAIR GIESSEL opened public testimony. Finding none, she closed
it.
SENATOR STEDMAN closed saying he appreciated the committee's
time in hearing this bill.
[SB 28 was held in committee.]