SENATOR MILLER announced HB 398 (LAND CONVEYED TO & FROM MUNICIPALITIES) to be up for consideration. REPRESENTATIVE HARLEY OLBERG, Sponsor, said HB 398 allows municipalities to acquire their adjoining tide lands from the state of Alaska subject to four conditions. He said an existing problem in the City of Skagway is addressed, also. He had a proposed amendment that would enable the State of Alaska to retain title to Anderson Bay by giving the Commissioner of DNR the right to decline a conveyance if the state's interests clearly outweigh the municipalities interests. SENATOR PEARCE asked if this could be used to stop aquaculture. REPRESENTATIVE OLBERG said it has to be a development project for the municipality to acquire their tide and submerged lands. MR. GALLAGHER noted that there wasn't a definition for development in statute, although language on page 4, line 8 discusses what the land can be used for. SENATOR ZHAROFF asked what was the affect of repealing subsection 11. REPRESENTATIVE OLBERG said that section was included at the request of Skagway where their high school and a large piece of their town is on filled tide lands. SENATOR MILLER said he was concerned with lines 13-15 on page 4 where it says, "the land is required for the accomplishment of a public or private development approved by the city." He thought someone's interpretation of development could mean a park, and he wasn't interested in creating parks. SENATOR PEARCE said she would like to hold the bill to tighten up the meaning of development. SENATOR MILLER moved to adopt another amendment by inserting language "unless the Commissioner finds that the public interest in retaining state ownership clearly outweighs the municipalities interest in obtaining land." There were no objections and it was so ordered. SENATOR MILLER said he intended to hold this bill until Monday and announced a recess for 2 minutes.