Petersburg residents tonight can weigh in on proposed changes to local law dictating how the Borough can sell its land and where people can discharge their firearms. That’s part of a lengthy agenda for the Petersburg Borough Assembly meeting, which includes four public hearings. 

The Borough is closing in on two final decisions that could change how it’s able to dispose of its land, and to whom.

One ordinance up for a final vote tonight would increase the assessed property value requirement for the sale or exchange of Borough land. When the Borough sells land assessed at more than $500,000, that sale has to go to a public vote. To account for inflation, the Assembly is looking at increasing that cap to $1.5 million. At the last regular Assembly meeting on March 4, Assembly members passed an amendment to lower the proposed cap down from $2 million to $1.5 million. 

The other ordinance up for discussion could expand the list of entities that can buy borough land at a discount. Petersburg municipal code doesn’t allow the borough to sell its land to private citizens and for-profit businesses below its assessed value. But this ordinance would allow those sales to go forward if interested parties promise that the land will be used for public good.

Both of those ordinances are scheduled for their third and final readings tonight. If they’re approved by the Assembly, they’ll be adopted into the Borough Code.

In other unfinished business, the Assembly is looking at allowing people to discharge their firearms in the Frederick Point East area. The Borough doesn’t allow people to shoot guns in well-populated residential areas, for safety reasons. But Frederick Point East is much more sparsely-populated than other parts of the Borough. The subdivision is only accessible by a Forest Service road, which is not maintained during the winter months. So, tonight, the Assembly is asking the public for feedback on whether it’s in their best interest to remove the firearm discharge prohibition in that specific area. This ordinance passed unanimously in its first reading earlier this month.

And in new business, the Assembly is scheduled to consider endorsing an Alaska Senate resolution to establish a Joint Legislative Seafood Industry Task Force. The task force would include an elected local official from a coastal community dependent on fisheries to help brainstorm solutions for sustaining the state’s seafood industry.

The Petersburg Borough Assembly will meet at 6 p.m. tonight in the Assembly Chambers. KFSK will broadcast that meeting live and post the recording in our Borough Assembly Archive. Anyone can join the meeting in person, by phone, or on Zoom. There’s more information on KFSK’s community calendar.