Legislature(1999 - 2000)
03/06/2000 02:08 PM House RES
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
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+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 344 - DEPT NAT RES & AK HARD ROCK LAND EXCHANGE Number 2045 CO-CHAIR MASEK announced that the next order of business would be HOUSE BILL NO. 344, "An Act authorizing a land exchange between the Department of Natural Resources and Alaska Hard Rock, Inc.; and providing for an effective date." Number 2107 JIM STRATTON, Director, Division of Parks & Outdoor Recreation, Department of Natural Resources, testified via teleconference from Anchorage. He stated: For those of you that are not familiar with Independence Mine State Historical Park, it's located about 90 minutes from Anchorage, up past Palmer in the Hatcher Pass region. It's a historic mining operation that was closed down during World War II, and it came to "Parks" as a state historical park from the mining interests in about 1980. Independence Mine State Historical Park has about 52,000 visits a year; it's road-accessible, and it's accessible year-round when the snow is plowed in the winter, and it's near the new proposed ski area at Hatcher Pass. So, we're talking about a park that is already a well-identified and well-used visitor destination. It is one of the most significant tourist attractions for the [Matanuska-Susitna] Borough, as it sits on one of the few roads off of the major highway system, and provides Alaskans and visitors alike to drive above treeline for hiking and historical tours in the summer and skiing and snowmobiling in the winter. The main attraction at the park are the historical mining structures and the beginning of one of the mining tunnels that goes into the side of the mountain. But maintaining these historical buildings is very expensive, and we are not able to do that, given our current capital authorization. So, we held a public meeting in March of '97 to discuss options with the community for how we could adaptively reuse the buildings at Independence Mine in a way that would provide an income flow to ensure that the buildings would remain standing. Through that meeting we found that adaptive reuse of the structures as a visitor destination was acceptable by everybody who was there, and that visitor destination could include things like overnight lodging, food service, gift shop and tours. We found that this was compatible with the purposes for which the park was established, in a finding that I signed in June of 1998, but during that process we learned from prospective private partners - who were interested in coming into Independence Mine and working with the division to reuse the buildings in Independence Mine as a visitor destination - that there's not enough cash flow in the lodging and food service alone to support the investment needed to adapt and protect the historic buildings. Three things needed to occur: there needed to be some improvements to the roads, and we've been working with the [Department of Transportation & Public Facilities] and the Mat-Su Borough to make that occur; the state needed to make as much investment as they could in the area, and this summer we have a TRAAK [Trails and Recreational Access for Alaska] project that is rebuilding the elevated walkway to the mine tunnel, rebuilding the tunnels through the historical building and providing ADA [Americans with Disabilities Act] access to visitors center; and there needed to be an opportunity for underground mine tours. Underground mine tours were seen as the cash flow opportunity to make this whole public-private partnership work. The problem is the state didn't own beyond the first few hundred feet of the tunnel; Alaska Hard Rock, Incorporated, owned the tunnel, but we knew that they were interested in pursuing an exchange for property that the state owns on the Willow Creek side of Hatcher Pass that Alaska Hard Rock is currently using for their mining operations. So, we signed a preliminary exchange agreement last June. We spent last summer doing the surveys and the appraisals; the costs were split between the state and Alaska Hard Rock, and in the end, the state is to receive 118 acres of underground mine tunnel valued at $87,000, and Alaska Hard Rock will receive 107 acres valued at $66,500. And because of the unequal values involved in this exchange, we need legislative approval, and we would ask that today. Number 2314 RUDY VETTER testified via teleconference from Fairbanks. He stated that he supports HB 344. He said there needs to be a lot more diversification, and more state land needs to be put into operation. Number 2387 SCOTT EUBANKS, President, Alaska Hard Rock, Incorporated, testified via teleconference from Wasilla. He asked for the committee's support on HB 344. He pointed out that if the bill passes, it will allow [the company] to protect a large investment that it already has in the area. He stated that he believes it is good for both parties involved. CO-CHAIR MASEK closed public testimony on HB 344. REPRESENTATIVE COWDERY made a motion to move HB 344 from committee with individual recommendations and the attached fiscal note; he asked for unanimous consent. There being no objection, HB 344 was moved out of the House Resources Standing Committee.
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