Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority’s Trust Land Office may not move forward with its South Mitkof subdivision.
The Office’s Executive Director Jusdi Warner discussed selling the lots with the Borough last month.
Petersburg Borough Manager Steve Giesbrecht told the Borough Assembly at their last meeting on April 1 that Warner said the Trust Land Office has other development options elsewhere.
“She made it clear the Trust is willing to move on to another subdivision if the borough does not approve the plat,” he said.
The other subdivision is in Alaska’s Mat-Su Valley.
The South Mitkof Subdivision design – or plat – that is in question is controversial. The Assembly voted unanimously last fall that Mayor Mark Jensen decline to approve the plat.
Borough officials and Trust Land Office employees have tried to find common ground on the development of the 500 acre, 100 plot subdivision south of Petersburg. The Office planned to sell the land to make money for mental health services in Alaska. But Borough officials are concerned that because the subdivision is outside of Petersburg’s service area, it only needs to meet the state’s very minimal development requirements. They say they’re worried that could lead to confusion, ill will, and expense to the Borough.
According to Geisbrect, Warner said the Trust Land Office could look into the possibility of putting in roads to some of the parcels, as a way to both mitigate the issues that worried the Borough, and increase the sale value of the land. She said the move would only be possible if the Borough Assembly first votes to have Mayor Jensen sign the plat.
This story has been corrected to remove mention of new for-sale signs on Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority-owned South Mitkof lots. The story originally stated that the signs appeared sometime in the first week of April 2024. According to photos and metadata supplied by the AMHTA, the signs were put up in April of 2023.
In an email, Spokesperson Allison Biastock wrote “they were hung by the Trust in spring 2023 in anticipation of the lots being platted and available in the Trust’s fall 2023 land sale. When the assembly did not accept the plat in early fall 2023, we removed those parcels from the sale’s offerings.”
The Trust Land Office says they never received the voicemail KFSK left requesting comment.
