June 19, 2007

By Russell Stigall/Frontiersman

MAT-SU - The Mat-Su Valley needs room to grow - for both its annual 4 percent population growth and the agriculture that feeds it. In case after case where these two needs meet, the seeds of conflict are being planted. Harry and Judi Davidson and Ronald and Alice Bicklein share ownership in two parcels of land on Fishhook Road. They purchased about 100 acres of wooded property three or four years ago, Ronald Bicklein said. When the two families bought the land they knew its used was limited by covenant to be used only for agricultural purposes. As time went on the tax the Bicklein's and Davidson's paid for their land was too high for their limited-use land.

“It is ag land but [Mat-Su Borough officials] are taxing us residential,” Bicklein said. “They should quit calling it ag land if they are not taxing it like ag land.”

The Bickleins and Davidsons have requested the borough assembly release the ag lands covenant on their land. Harry Davidson gave arguments to the assembly, but requested the vote be postponed to tonight's assembly meeting to give the Bickleins a chance to address local officials.

Ronald Bicklein said he would not speak at the meeting because the assembly members have “already made up their mind.”

The borough's Land and Resource Management Division gave the assembly a recommendation to deny the Bickleins and the Davidsons their request to remove the agricultural purposes covenant imposed on their land. LRM said their request “is not consistent with the intent of the borough's agricultural land sale programs and policies over the past 40 years.”

The families could have brought their tax issue to the borough assessor, Assembly Member Tom Kluberton said.

“They chose an interesting approach, which was not convincing to a lot of folks on the assembly who just allocated $300,000 for ag land preservation,” Kluberton said.

Bicklein said he and the Davidsons also wanted to pass to their children the ability to build their own homes on the land. The agriculture designation on the property also limits the number and type of structures that can be built on site.

“We wanted to have more than one person live on the 100 acres, to pass on a piece of it to each one of our heirs,” Bicklein said. “How is it hurting for people to have a couple homes?”

Assembly Member Mary Kvalheim believes the Davidsons and Bickleins were honest about their intentions to keep the land mostly intact for their children, but future owners may not be so thoughtful.

“If they sell it, somebody else can make a gravel pit out of it,” Kvalheim said about the danger of changing the land's use.

The Fishhook Road area is growing fast, Kvalheim said. “We are going to run into this over and over, since some of this land is becoming very valuable.”

Kvalheim said she plans to vote against the removal of the ag land covenant.

“They should have gone to the assessor,” she said.

Bicklein said the land, surrounded by new subdivisions, shouldn't be designated agriculture only since it is not suitable for farming anyway.

“There hasn't been farming done on it [in] years and years. It is all timber,” Bicklein said. Borough documentation basically agrees saying Bickleins' and Davidsons' description of their land as “heavily wooded, with much of the topography in steep moraine and unsuited for crop or hay production” is generally accurate.

The families' 60 acres where sold originally as part of a 250-acre parcel the borough estimated was worth $44,200 in 1973, with ag restrictions. The fair market value of the same parcel without restrictions is estimated to be worth $96,250 in 1973 dollars. The original 250 acres were split into 40-acre lots and larger during the early 1980s. The borough deems parcels over 40 acres as the minimum size for a farm unit.

Contact Russell Stigall at 352-2267 or russell.stigall@frontiersman.com.