Jackson’s Park on Agenda at Tonight’s Joint Session

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

Jackson’s Mobile Home Park continues to be a point of discussion with local government, and the Kodiak City Council and the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly will tackle it again at a joint work session tonight.

While Borough Manager Bud Cassidy was not available for comment, Bill Roberts is administrative officer for the Kodiak Island Borough and says the central subject at the meeting will be Jackson’s park, which falls under Borough jurisdiction.

“The joint session is basically to talk about what we can do to help the people trying to move their mobile homes out of Jackson’s Mobile Home Park,” says Roberts. “And the Borough’s making some changes in their codes – some temporary changes in their codes – to allow these mobile homes to go to existing parks that may be nonconforming, but that will allow them to go ahead and, if they have an empty space, put it in there.”
    
Roberts says the park’s buyer is giving residents until next May to move their homes.

Since learning about the closure, residents have been active in seeking assistance at both city and borough meetings. Roberts says there’s not much to stop the land’s buyer from turning it into a subdivision.

“I think if it were managed properly, it could be a money-maker as it exists, but you know, somebody buys property, they have a right to do what they want to do with it as long as it meets code, and this definitely meets code,” says Roberts.

City Manager Aimée Kniaziowski says there are two items on the joint session’s agenda.

“One is the review of the steps that the borough has taken to date with the Jackson trailer park and some of the help that the residents of Jackson’s have come forward and requested, so there is a comprehensive packet of information that has been prepared by the borough and we’ll be talking about that,” says Kniaziowski.

She says the other item will be a look at the appointment process for the Building Code Board of Appeals. The joint session will begin at 7:30 p.m. in the Kodiak Public Library multipurpose room.