The Anchorage Assembly tonight has the opportunity to ensure government does not use the legal sledgehammer of eminent domain to grab private property for "leisure amenities" such as trails and parks no matter how they are "characterized or financed."
The long-overdue amendment, which has advocates of using eminent domain to extend the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail in a dither, was offered by Assemblyman Chris Birch. A public hearing was held earlier and Assembly members got an earful from those in support of the amendment to the municipal code.
Birch's ordinance also contains language that would prohibit the use of eminent domain unless the property taken actually is used by the city or public. "Eminent domain," it says, "is not to be used to further private economic development."
That would bar here the practice of government taking property from its owner and handing it over to a developer so that the city could make more tax revenue.
The ordinance, however, does not prohibit "pedestrian facilities as amenities in the right-of-way for a road classified as local, collector, arterial, expressway or freeway." Nor should it, as such improvements are necessary.
You have to ask yourself: What's not to like in Birch's measure? Why is it driving trail advocates nuts? Well, it blocks reckless government seizure of private property for recreational use rather than for an overriding public purpose or need. It takes a giant step toward ensuring and guaranteeing private property rights, which some are willing to cast aside at the snap of Spandex. It provides a check on government excess. Further, it would require a future Assembly to muster a two-thirds vote to change the law.
Despite the fulminating from all sides, when it comes to "leisure amenities," is Anchorage truly destitute? Hardly. We have 14,900 acres in 230 parks, and the city is backed up to the Chugach National Forest, with 5.4 million more acres. That is, as we have noted here previously, about the size of New Jersey. And that does not include the 495,000 acres of the Chugach State Park. We have ball fields. We have urban fisheries. We have amenities that send other cities into a swoon. How about trails? Well, the city boasts about 120 miles of paved trails. We've got ski facilities. We've got it all.
So, why is there this incessant push to use one of government's most onerous powers to expand the list of goodies? On the proposed coastal trail extension alone, more than 170 pieces of private property would be affected. That is only an estimate because, like the alleged $24 million price tag and the actual route, all of it is anybody's guess at this point.
It is beyond time to rein in government. The Assembly tonight has the chance to do actual good for the community.
We hope it does the right thing.