Borough Lands Committee Looks at More Land Parcels to Develop

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

The Borough Lands Committee is scoping out more property to develop in order to open up living situations in the community.

The lands committee formed last year sometime after the announcement of the Jackson Mobile Home Park closure, which led to an emphasis on both the lack of availability of land and the high rent prices in Kodiak.

Representatives from the lands committee gave a presentation at the Kodiak Island Borough Assembly and Kodiak City Council joint work session Wednesday night.

Assemblyman Matt Van Daele, who sits on the committee, said they’re looking at parcels near Beaver and Dark Lake for possible development.

“Part of this would be a potential extension of Von Scheele Way across the anadromous stream right there, and though this has posed a bit of a challenge in the past because this is a fish-bearing and anadromous stream, we’re fairly confident that Fish and Game would be very easy to work with in helping design a proper culvert to allow fish passage and not impair the habitat.”

He says in the future they’d also be interested in looking at city parcels on Selief Lane, near the Beaver and Dark Lake lands. These properties have a few steps to go through before they can enter the market. As Van Daele explains, the committee is just where these ideas begin.

“The next step in the process, Mr. Mayor, please correct me if I’m wrong, but we would be forwarding our recommendation to the Planning and Zoning Commission about if there’s going to be any kind of subdivision, if there’s gonna be an RFP for a developer, anything like that. Our committee just has recommendations and then we forward them along to the other legislative processes.”

The next meeting of the Borough Lands Committee is scheduled for this coming Wednesday. That’ll be at noon in the Borough Conference Room.