The Denali State Park Special Use District planning team met Wednesday night without finalizing any of the SPUD revisions.
Eileen Probasco, planning manager at the Mat Su Borough, says that 2 months ago, she was hopeful that planning had progressed enough that she expected the document to be completed and sent to the Assembly for approval in June. Now, she says, it appears a more accurate completion date is later this fall.
Discussion at the meeting centered around public versus private operations. The group decided to delete language that dealt with public facilities and ask for conditional use permits for any campground, hotel, and other commercial uses. All public facilities on park land are covered in the state park management plan, while ANY commercial facility on private inholdings would be covered under a conditional use permit in the special use district.
There is still concern over setback regulations. And for the first time, earth material removal came into question. Gold mining and that type of activity will fit under a conditional use.
Several attendees wanted to address the concern of tall structures in the SPUD. Probasco urged attendees at the meeting to wait until the Borough tower plan was released before tackling the issue of tall structures and towers in the state park.
The next meeting date has not yet been set. Participants and planning team members should expect to meet again in late March or early April.
