A Seward Highway rehabilitation project has been delayed by community concerns in Moose Pass.
The plan drew pushback from residents in the small eastern peninsula community, who gathered under the name Protect and Preserve Moose Pass to delay what they saw as invasive right-of-way acquisition on properties along the highway. Now, the Alaska Department of Transportation has temporarily rescinded its proposal from the Kenai Peninsula Borough’s approval process, pending further meetings with the community.
Last Tuesday, the statewide commissioner for DOT, Ryan Anderson, and three members of his staff came down to Moose Pass and walked around town with residents. After the meeting, DOT sent a formal request to the borough’s planning commission to postpone the vote on the proposal at its meeting the next week’s July 18 meeting.
Justin Shelby, a communications officer with DOT, said the postponement is so that the department can clarify the scope of the project and clear up misconceptions with the community.
“Right now, we’ve just postponed to take the time to provide some more information about the project,” Shelby said.
On Thursday, July 14 at a Moose Pass Advisory Planning Commission meeting, DOT project officials announced an Aug. 2 hybrid public meeting at the Moose Pass Community Hall from 5 to 7:30 p.m. to communicate its plans for the project. The event will be structured as an open house, and will be followed by two days of meetings with individual affected property owners.
Property owners are concerned about impacts to their driveways, business parking areas, septic tanks or old-growth trees.
Shelby said he’s looking forward to clearing up information about the project with those residents.
“We just really want to get the word out about this public meeting on the second [of August],” he said. “We’re looking forward to being able to explain the value of this project to the community, and all the things that the design team has done to conserve the historical look and feel of Moose Pass while still meeting the needs of this project.”
Although local residents were hoping for the delayed planning commission vote, John Smart, a Moose Pass resident and spokesperson for Preserve and Protect Moose Pass, isn’t fully satisfied with the developments. He said the upcoming open house is too soon and worries the agenda of the meeting is too vague.
Chris Bentz, the project manager, explained that the purpose of the Aug. 2 meeting is general public awareness, not to address the particular concerns of the Preserve and Protect group. Bentz said he has also offered to meet with that group separately to speak to those concerns.
Smart said Bentz is misunderstanding how closely the action group is tied to the feelings and desires of the community as a whole.
“The Preserve and Protect Moose Pass Team is the community of Moose Pass,” Smart said. “We are Moose Pass, and Moose Pass is us.”
Bentz said the community meetings in the coming weeks are unlikely to result in any major changes to the design of the project. but Smart is still hopeful the Preserve and Protect group can collaborate on a new path forward for the project.
“The community is cautiously optimistic that we can work with the DOT and come up with a revision to the plan that is good for all of us,” he said.
Now, the group is preparing for that public meeting on August 2.
The Borough Planning Commission voted to postpone the proposal indefinitely at yesterday’s plat committee meeting, according to Borough Planning Director Robert Ruffner. Bentz said DOT doesn’t have a specific timeline for reintroducing their plans.
