1. What do you value or like most about the Salcha-Badger Road area? What do you want to keep/not lose as the area changes/grows?

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Roland Allison
5 years ago
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1 Salcha-Badger Road Subarea Plan Working Group Kickoff Meeting; March 22, 2018 Summary of Group Discussion on Two Core Questions NOTE: Items in blue font were submitted by Salcha working group members unable to attend the March 22, 2018 meeting. Those notes are from a conversation with a small group of Salcha residents. 1. What do you value or like most about the Salcha-Badger Road area? What do you want to keep/not lose as the area changes/grows? Access to Outdoors and Outdoor Recreation Salcha ski trails; best I ve ever skied. Plack Road area Freedom to get on snowmachine/atv and go. Don t need to load it on a trailer! Enjoy Chena Lakes Recreation Area. Boat access to Chena Slough and Chena River boating. Active people that value outdoor opportunities. Chena Lakes. Kids biking on paths. For dog teams/mushers amazing run on a beautiful trail. - How to share trails will continue to be important they belong to everyone. More people will love them but hopefully not to death. Trails need to be safe for everyone. Recreational Chena Slough/Chena River. You can jump in a boat and hardly see anyonel that is really special. Same for snowmachining. You can see wildlife no matter where you go. Chena Lakes and recreation easy access for ski, boat, snowmachine. Get in a boat, head up the river, not see anybody. Fishing lakes are nice (Bathing Beauty, Chena Lakes). Fishing is important for military population. For example, Chena Hot Springs Road they can trap, fish and live a subsistence like lifestyle. Space and Freedom Available space and personal freedoms on how you use the space. Don t want to be on top of each other. North Pole seems to be going to more of a big city. (South) Fairbanks is crowded and noisy. There is better quality of life in North Pole. Don t want to be crunched together like Wasilla, want to keep good access to public lands, but recognize we re going to grow. Importance of Military and Changing Population Military affiliation/known as a military community Don t want to lose respect for military families. Rotation of people new Alaskans versus lifers. This is a healthy change you have both the continuity of those who have been here forever plus new ideas. That is, overall, a positive. Page 1 of 5

2 Community, Family and Hometown/Small-Town Feel (including safety) Value community, people. Fun to run business. Old families and new military families. Value the hometown feel in North pole. Can we save it? Need to balance small town feel with new growth. Small-town feel of education/schools and community in Salcha. Everyone still knows family (each other s) names. Not as many problems as Fairbanks. We need to keep the small-town feel, but still expand (allow for growth). Family opportunities there are a lot of activities for young people, three to 18-years old. Salcha is a beautiful peaceful place to live, even with Eielson airplanes overhead. Eielson is our neighbor too. It s not too crowded. There isn t too too much noise. The challenge is to keep those special qualities intact. We want to keep capacity for schools. Keep the level of safety on roads and think proactively about where we need improvements. Protect small town values. Neighbors know one another and take care of each other. North Pole has more in common with Tok. When someone knocks on the door, you open it. You can leave your car door unlocked. It s safe! Neighbors help each other. Existing Services The City of North Pole does a great job with tax dollars to maintain that higher quality of life. Spend money wisely plow sidewalks, do things we need. 2. What would you change about the area? How could the area be improved? Public Safety With additional people, Moose Creek and Salcha have only limited police presence. Lack of building standards, lack of good road access is a real safety problem. Fire department can t reach homes if roads are in bad shape. And large majority of fires happen in buildings built without modern construction standards. Communications Cell phone/internet coverage is spotty, especially in Moose Creek/Salcha. Health and Social Services Would like to see a public health nurse out here periodically, so older residents don t have to go to town, especially on nasty roads. Transportation Traffic Dealing with the Eielson 500. During the morning commute, there is road rage and high speeds on the Richardson Highway. Only one gate, limited police force is a problem. Roads Richardson Highway It s time for a third lane. Badger Road needs improvements, including turning lanes. Specifics: - We need to solve issue of roads in subdivisions not getting built right, not getting maintained. - Plack, Holmes, and Dennis Roads are terrible. Page 2 of 5

3 For subdivisions FNSB has waived requirements for new roads. The lack of maintenance is challenging. - The entire Badger Road area should be in one service area. Fire trucks, emergency response vehicles getting buried. The problem with the service areas you have to vote yourself in. - Peridot Needs upgrading and then you could access the highway and avoid North Pole. Peridot is in no man s land. So much traffic on Peridot. Resistance is fear of taxes. - Plack Road Dawson should be connected to Plack. That would require buying private property to secure the right-of-way (ROW). Funding of road improvements: - Road service areas are not continuous and a lot of roads are not in the Alaska Department of Transportation and Facilities (ADOT&PF) ROW, or in service areas. - FMATS can fund within road service areas, but not outside. Peridot Road is an example where FMATS can only improve portion of Peridot in a road service area. FMATS can not invest in orphan roads can only fund roads/trails if they are maintained. Someone has to sign a maintenance agreement. FMATS is interested in widening roads and creating shoulders for bicyclists and pedestrians. FMATs can fund separated bike paths. DOT does not want to see any new separated paths because there is no funding to maintain. FMATS gets $8M a year from the Federal Highway Administration for road projects 20 percent goes for non-motorized pathways. FMATS also receives Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement (CMAQ) money that can be used for pedestrian/bike paths and trails. Projects just need to be nominated to FMATS. To get federal funds a local match is required of nine percent. Most of the money goes to more local roads, not highways. Access to North Pole needs attention the North Pole Plaza Mall area, specifically. - Trying to get into Safeway at 5 p.m. is brutal. - The roundabouts have helped. Potentially, the shopping center needs its own exit ramp. - Between 5 to 7 p.m., and even earlier, during school times, cars get stacked almost to highway. - Emergency responders hop the roundabout if they need to. - If a Fred Meyer or Target happens as the result of an increased population, how will that impact traffic at the roundabouts there is solid traffic there at rush hour. - Richardson to Finell Drive to Safeway to Crossway to alleviate North Pole traffic congestion. Old Richardson Highway public meeting regarding railroad crossings. We need to fix these intersections (Old Richardson/5 th Avenue and Old Richardson/8 th Avenue intersections that are close to railroad tracks). We need funds for road improvements. The Borough contacted one Salcha resident to say they are making passing lanes throughout our community. The problem is we have no police protection here, speeding is a way of life. We would rather see turn lanes, possibly at the Knotty Shop, Salcha Store, Salcha Church, Salcha School, Salcha Post Office, and the two dumpster sites. This proposal would be a lot cheaper than trying to build one passing lane on the curve just before the Salcha Store. That Page 3 of 5

4 would involve fighting the Tanana River, a FEMA property, and a slough that floods frequently. Also need to add a turn out at the Mormon Church. It s not bad in the winter (now), but trying to turn in the summer time is deadly. With increased traffic, there will be serious accidents. Paths and Trails Plack Road was upgraded and widened a couple of years ago. However, they needed to secure the right-of-way to add bike paths, so they didn t do it. Snowmachines and ATVs are using the bike paths we do have and ruining them. It would be great to have a separated bike path from Chena Hot Springs to Nordale. A lot of people would use and enjoy that. DOT&PF can t fund separated pathways in today s fiscal climate. Many of us have fought for years for a bike path. There is no safe place in the entire valley for kids to bike, or for walking. Many years ago, a child was killed crossing the Salcha bridge. Another was clipped more recently while biking. The Borough agreed with us, but nothing has been done, even though many areas have had bike paths upgraded two to three times. Public Transportation Bring back the bus or making something like Van Tran, where residents can pay to be taken to town. That would be great if the traffic grows. Some residents aren t in a hurry when they drive. Aviation Recent additional restrictions in DoD airspace, which makes it very difficult to find airspace between Fairbanks and Delta Junction. Land Use and Development There is balance between zoning and preserving what we have. - The reality is we will have more people, so it will be harder to maintain space. If we are going to grow we will have higher density housing. And, we will need to have adequate transportation routes for commuters going from North Pole to Eielson. - Lack of water and sewer limits options for density. - Quick unplanned growth can lead to low value homes I ve lived in substandard houses for 40 years. We need better land use and building codes, but many people will fight tooth and nail to resist. - Wood stoves and air quality issues gets worse if we have 3,300 new people and no standards. - Air Force is a 15 to 20-year commitment. A little bit of planning will go a long way. Building codes are needed, but would be resisted. Salcha Eielson Farm Road north of Stringer Road there is not a lot of land to subdivide. There are some large agricultural parcels. Where would new neighborhoods? - There is Borough land on the east side of Richardson, but it is not very good quality. - Salcha is a popular neighborhood. The people that live in the area value it because of the larger lots. Related currently, agricultural parcels are restricted (40 acres in size). Will restrictions be lifted? - As the population increases, worry about Eielson Farm Road becoming Farmers Loop Road a narrow road that people drive too fast on. Page 4 of 5

5 Yes, Borough land east of Richardson is poor building quality/wetlands. There are some builders that have platted in Salcha for five lots. Other development will be restricted in Salcha mostly based it is wetlands and slough protection. Overall, cost effective developable land is limited. There are also deed-restricted lands. Housing How do we maintain what we value? Improve inventory of houses (we still have all of this substandard boom town housing). Quality of housing is important. What kind of homes will get built? In the Badger Road area there are no building codes unless a three-plex or bigger, or if someone is borrowing money from a bank to build. The State Fire Marshal requires those larger projects to be built to code and does inspections. - If building out of pocket, a builder/developer can do whatever they want. - Concerning from a fire standpoint and safety of fire crews. 90 percent of fires responded to are a result of substandard housing construction. - Related banks are not financing right now housing is out of pocket. People will fight against building codes and regulations. But, would they be amenable to zoning areas for better development/to protect their homes? Air and Water Quality Water pollution in North Pole and Moose Creek how does that impact housing? Heating and air quality people still want to burn wood stoves, especially if fuel prices rise Air quality is only going to get worse. This is related to our core values we like the freedom of our rural lifestyle cutting our own wood, having pellet stoves and bonfires. Page 5 of 5

FMATS Transportation Improvement Program Non-Motorized Project Nomination Form

FMATS Transportation Improvement Program Non-Motorized Project Nomination Form Project nominations are accepted from the public and are scored based on the adopted Project Scoring Criteria. These criteria assign weight based on the project s impact on the following: 1. Health and