Borough asks DOT to add frontage roads on Parks expansion

At issue is a Parks Highway widening project slated to start next year which will shift the current two-lane road to a four-lane divided highway from Pittman Road to Big Lake Road. The project will also extend a bike path and add a drainage ditch.

Rather than add frontage roads or other access means, the plan calls for u-turn cut-throughs placed through the median about once every half-mile. That system will require drivers who want to access a business on the opposite side to make a u-turn before backtracking to their destination.

Business owners in the area, including Sylvia and Steve Childs, who operate the area’s postal annex out of their general store at the corner of Parks Highway and S. Rainbow Street, say the plan creates access headaches and safety concerns. Halter’s letter to the department specifically addressed those issues.

“Patrons to the Meadow Lakes Post Office complex, area residents and other businesses in the Mileposts 44 to 52 area have serious concerns about access to/from the Parks Highway,” it says. “The current planned route from the west or east is troublesome for everyone who goes to the Meadow Lakes Postal Annex almost daily.”

Community members at the Meadow Lakes Community Council meeting last week passed a resolution asking for frontage roads and new meetings with transportation officials. Halter attached that resolution to his letter.

“We strongly urge the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to meet with residents of the community and local business owners personally over their concerns for projected future growth of our community,” it said. “And be it further resolved that we support frontage roads which will enable easy access and promote safety in a growing community.”

State transportation officials said they are continuing to work with the community and borough.

“The DOT&PF continues to have conversations with the individuals, the community and local government about the Parks Highway Phase III Reconstruction project,” department spokesperson Shannon McCarthy said in a statement. “The Department supports the community’s efforts to build additional frontage roads and will support and partner the Mat-Su Borough in developing community infrastructure.”

Meanwhile, individual business members are also hoping to continue working with the department on related road problems. Dan Michaud, who owns Alaska Fireplace and Accessories and is popularly known in the community as “Dan the Fireplace Man,” said he is now battling the state over a disputed property line revealed by the construction project.

While all of the surveys done on his property and his official documents with the borough note a 132-foot state easement from the highway, the state is claiming 150 feet under a 1950’s-era order, he said. If the state seizes that disputed 18 feet, he will lose a valuable portion of what he has always been told is his land.

“I’ve been living in my place, been paying taxes on this land that I think that I own, and now the state comes in and draws a line,” he said. “I’m not going to get bullied. I’m a Vietnam veteran, I stood up for my rights … I’m not going to stand by when they come and let them take 10 percent of my land.”

McCarthy said the 150-foot right away has been a matter of public record since 1956, but was missed in surveys. A 1999 mapping project showed the correct right of ways, and DOT has provided letters and documents to property owners who were impacted.

She said property tax problems should be taken to the borough, since the the department doesn’t have authority over that issue.

State Rep. Mark Neumann, who represents the area in Juneau, said he is pushing transportation officials to listen to the community members.

“My reaction is that I’m very disappointed in the state Department of Transportation for not listening to the people in the community, and continuing to build these roads with intersections every half mile,” he said. “They don’t want to listen to the people who live here and who spent many years of their lives with what the traffic patterns are and the best way to deal with them.”