Welcome to bad government: The mess in Government Hill that KABATA left

government hill protest 1

About 50 people chanted, waved signs and rang bells –one even rode a unicycle–to greet a group of men who showed up to bid on three properties in the Government Hill neighborhood in order to make room for a bridge that would span the Knik Arm. The Department of Transportation put out a bid to buy the properties in order to demolish them. It is spending anywhere from $500,000 to $1 million to get the job done. That’s on top of the roughly $2.5 million the state paid to acquire the properties. About seven men showed to walk through them. They were media shy and wouldn’t answer questions, particularly with the crowd of protesters across the street, imploring them to go away.

The bridge, if it gets built at all, is years away from being complete. It has yet to get necessary federal loans–loans that the state has applied for repeatedly and has been turned down for repeatedly. And even if it gets the loans, it still needs a host of permits, including from the Corp of Engineers and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Add this to declining state revenues, the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whales that migrate through the waters, problematic silt, ice floes, strong tides and a highly active and likely litigious community that’s largely opposed to the bridge, and you’ve got a project that’s likely years in the making, if ever.

Still, three properties are in the process of being razed–one adorable house, one house that could be adorable, and one large hotel that isn’t weathering abandonment well. According to DOT, since the properties were acquired in 20012 and 2013, 37 households and 55 people have been relocated, at a cost to the state of $490,000, not including the price tag on the properties themselves.

Now the properties sit empty, and when they’re razed, large holes will be left in the neighborhood, which many fear will lead to blight. And there appears nothing to be done about it. It’s all the more ironic if you consider that the bridge is being built to open up more land to build houses on, because, if you haven’t heard, there’s a housing crisis in this town.

Let’s not mince words: Welcome to the world of bad government, where an agency, in this case the Knik Arm Bridge and Toll Authority, was given the authority to buy the properties prematurely, authority that for years went unchecked, and where state leaders, who could have halted the process until it made more sense, chose to kowtow to the pro-development base.

All told, KABATA has spent about $84 million on the project so far, and the design is only about 35 percent complete.

There was some movement recently. Gov. Sean Parnell introduced a new financing plan, one that cut the private sector out of the project and will likely cost the state even more money. And at long last, and after a long fight, the Legislature decided to wrest away KABATA’s authority and put it in the hands of the DOT, which is now charged with the project and left with the mess.

Like all big government bureaucracies, DOT can be flatfooted, but it tends not to evangelize for and politicize projects, like KABATA did with the bridge, and it’s generally honest and straight with the public.

Democrats and community activists have long been against demolishing the houses, and recently, mayoral candidate Dan Coffey, who is a Republican, has entered the fight. He’s been in touch with Gov. Sean Parnell’s office to suggest that DOT delay the demolition and hire a property management firm to rent out the properties. He has not talked to Parnell about it directly, he said.

Coffey’s no stranger to the situation. He fought to keep the Subway in the area, which was slated to be razed but is now on a month-to-month lease. The Subway, however, was on railroad land, and the railroad wasn’t going to give up the land without a fight.

Coffey’s idea sounds reasonable. It would save the state up to a million dollars in demolition fees, the state would get the rental income, and at least 55 people would have places to live.

However, good ideas in the private sector are not always good ideas in the public sector. . First, someone would have to come up the money to bring the buildings up to local, state and federal code. For the hotel at least, that wouldn’t be cheap. Secondly, DOT is not in the business of residential property management. And if they did get rented, it would have to be on a monthly basis. And if the project were ever to happen, the state would again be charged with relocating all the residents.

In the words of DOT spokesperson Jill Reese, it would be an expensive “rabbit hole.”

The only option that DOT is offering is that someone could buy the house from the demolition crew. Then, however, the new owner would be responsible for moving that house from the land. And, as most know, plots of land are hard to find in Anchorage, which is why there’s a housing crisis and was the impetus for the bridge in the first place.

Contact Amanda Coyne at amandamcoyne@yahoo.com


7 thoughts on “Welcome to bad government: The mess in Government Hill that KABATA left

  1. Mae

    Was Gattis there? Parading around with a few KABATA employees, saying they are still alive and functional? Like she was last year…

  2. Eddie T.

    KABATA is at the top of the list of Alaska’s boondoggles and that’s saying a lot. I’m not saying stop or walk away from the project, let’s just approach it sensibly. Dan Coffey is spot on with his ideas. I hope he can convince the Parnell administration.

  3. Ron Jordan

    As Fifty year resident the bridge is and has been needed for many years. The methods used to build it are in question. It will take many years to pay for the bridge one hand is not build it is at A much higher cost when you look at the lost time in consumer needs when the Glenn is blocked for any reason. When the Glenn is blocked you are looking at no other way to make it to Anchorage for an appointment, work, or flight. You have no plan “B”.

  4. Derp

    Lynn Willis is dead on. To be seen as a boondoggle by the current bunch of spenders in office is.. An accomplishment to say least. Cut KABATA off like K camp.

  5. Norah

    Here is a kind message for the legislature…please finish the port of anchorage and care for the current infrastructure projects in the state until we make more oil money and figure out our pension issues. Then go for a massive bridge to the mat-su.

  6. Lynn Willis

    This is indeed bad government at work. After five years, you kind of get used to it.
    This purchase was all about image and job justification for the KABATA crowd who wasted money to the point even the legislature couldn’t stand them any longer- and that was quite an accomplishment to be seen as a ‘fiscal rat hole’ by the current Legislature and Governor.
    Follow Dan Coffey’s lead on this. Perhaps tell the DOT not to concern them selves with housing and turn this over to the AHFC whose business is find solutions to housing problems.

  7. akmom

    Amanda: You are right. This is government at its worst and I say that as a retired State employee. I live in the valley near Houston where I could actually use the bridge. I doubt that I would use it on a regular basis due to the inevitable high cost of the tolls and, frankly, it is a long drive to get to the bridge. As a State with diminishing resources, should we not be focusing on improving our current roads? For example, Wasilla and the Valley are only going to continue to grow. The traffic and road issues in the MatSu borough are far behind in planning and execution. We have numerous roads that are barely passable, highways running through a town that desperately needs to be bypassed (Wasilla), and bridges that need repair.

    By the way, I once saw the KABATA offices while on an errand. Let’s just say that I haven’t seen many law offices that nice.

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