A portion of three acres of unused land, which is currently owned by the Kodiak Island Borough, will be for sale to the public in the near future. That’s after the Borough Assembly on May 1 unanimously agreed to dispose of the plot.
The land sits near Island Lake Road and Scout Circle, at 593 Island Lake Road, and is currently vacant. Roughly half of the area, which includes wetlands, will be subdivided into four lots.
This land was identified by the Borough Lands Committee months ago on Jan. 6 as surplus, and was recommended to be sold through auction to meet public need in the near future. The committee, which was recently reestablished after being inactive since 2019, also requested the land be rezoned from public use to R2, two-family residential.
Borough Assembly member Steve Ames, who is one of seven voting members on the committee, wanted to put conditions on who could buy land during the upcoming sale but not all of the committee members agreed. Borough Lands Committee member Dave Townsend summed up why stipulations weren’t included in what became the final version of the land disposal request.
“I don’t want to put a stipulation that you have to build it inside of two years, something like that," Townsend said. "Because young people want to buy a piece of land, or a more established entity wants to buy a piece of land, so that their kids can have it and build something on it in the future.”
Townsend added that getting some of the Borough’s surplus land into private ownership is a win-win situation.
According to information provided by Borough staff, the last time the Borough sold plots of its land was roughly eight years ago, in May of 2017. Borough Manager Aimee Williams noted last year that only two new homes were built as a result of the most recent land sales.
Before the newly opened four parcels are ready for sale, Borough staff must first complete a disposal process that involves a series of administrative steps. How the property will be sold has not been determined yet and won’t be decided by the Borough Assembly until the land disposal is finished. Although the lands committee recommended that the land be sold through a traditional, outcry auction.
It is unclear how long that disposal process will take as each phase involves public meetings or hearings for nearby property owners, who might be affected, to weigh in.
However, Chris French, the director of the borough’s Community Development Department, estimates it could take several months before the lots are ready for sale.
