MEMORANDUM
TO: Tim Navarre, Assembly President
Members of the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly
THRU: Dale Bagley, Borough Mayor
FROM: Robert Bright, Planning Director
DATE: November 9, 2000
SUBJECT: RESOLUTION 2000-106 PROVIDING FOR THE RELINQUISHMENT AND NOMINATION OF CERTAIN LAND FOR CONVEYANCE FROM THE STATE OF ALASKA TO THE BOROUGH PURSUANT TO THE MUNICIPAL ENTITLEMENT ACT
Borough code 17.10.030 (C)(6) requires municipal entitlement land acquisitions to be approved by resolution. The attached resolution approves the selection of numerous new parcels and the relinquishment of several pending selection applications, to provide a final prioritized list to complete the Kenai Peninsula Borough municipal entitlement.
The Municipal Entitlement Act established the Kenai Peninsula Borough land grant at 155,780 acres. The state and the borough have agreed that of this amount, approximately 44,000 acres remain to be approved by the state. As of March 2000 the borough and state still had major unresolved differences regarding the quantity and quality of land available to the Kenai Peninsula Borough under the Kenai Area Plan and the status and standing of Kenai Peninsula Borough land selections. In March, 2000 the Department of Natural Resources issued a final decision approving the Kenai Area Plan. The Kenai Peninsula Borough appealed that decision in April, 2000. The parties then entered a settlement agreement and dismissed the appeal.
In the settlement agreement, the Kenai Peninsula Borough agreed to prioritize 42,000 acres of land selections by December 31, 2000. This resolution is submitted in preparation for fulfillment of this part of the settlement agreement.
This resolution describes 19,762 acres of existing land selection nominations to be relinquished. This is land that Kenai Peninsula Borough identified as undesirable and that should no longer be considered to fulfill the entitlement. Kenai Peninsula Borough expects most of this relinquished land would still be available should the need arise, and section 2 of the resolution clarifies this contingency.
This resolution describes 24,165 acres of new land selections. Applications for nomination of land selection have not been previously filed on these parcels. Since the Kenai Area Plan is still being published, it is our best estimate that all of these parcels are conveyable under the KAP with the exception of State Unit 390. The state also indicated that a selectable status does not automatically mean that the parcels will be approved for conveyance. On some units, the state is not yet able to inform KPB whether buffers will be retained by the state or provided for by easements. It is anticipated this shortfall will be covered by "over-selections" to be identified or filed in the future.
Previous relinquishments were filed in 1998 and 1999 without resolutions. Except for an area of swampy land made inaccessible, all of these relinquishments were for land that was selected but not conveyable by reason that the state or federal government deeded or promised the land to other third parties under existing law. Those parcels are reiterated in this resolution to help ensure that the Division of Land credits KPB with them.
Your approval of these lands for selection and relinquishment is requested.