By Ken Smith
Turnagain Times
Assemblywoman Jennifer Johnston, who represents south Anchorage and Girdwood, sponsored an ordinance for a camping code waiver action, which will let the Heritage Land Bank grant a temporary land use permit to allow camping in two designated camping areas on HLB land during Forest Fair July 3-5.
The ordinance is expected to be introduced to the Assembly on April 21 and then be presented and voted on at a public hearing May 5.
However, before granting the permit, HLB is requiring a lengthy list of conditions that must be met by Forest Fair.
At the top of that list are: No alcohol, no campfires, no burn barrels, tent camping shall be contained within one discrete fenced area designated by HLB permit, and no camping on an island on HLB land.
By not allowing island camping, the HLB is disallowing the Forest Fair’s plans to use the island at Glacier Creek for camping.
Forest Fair listed three campgrounds in their Site Plan: The New Girdwood Campground at the Nissman Pavilion, which can only accommodate about 20 campsites, and Vendor and family camping in the recently cleared areas along Karolius Drive, which may be able to fit around 2,000 campers in the entire wooded area and on the island in Glacier Creek.
At the 2007 Forest Fair, more than 2,000 campers, leading to security problems and the eventual cancellation of the fair in 2008 until security issues were resolved.
The Forest Fair Committee addressed the security problems when they hired a professional security firm, Securitas USA, to oversee this year’s fair. But it came at a cost of about $30,000, which Forest Fair was expecting to pay from a $25 per night camping fee. They were planning on collecting much of that money from campers at the island at Glacier Creek.
But the dye has been cast for this Forest Fair, and the people in charge of managing municipal land have made their points clear on how that land will be used and under what conditions.
Bill Mehner is the Executive Director of HLB. He was approached by Johnston to put together an ordinance provided there were certain restrictions and conditions of use.
Johnston stands by the final ordinance at least for this year, and said she’s confidant it will be approved by the Assembly, given the restrictions and responsibilities included in it.
“They (Forest Fair) have a list of criteria they must meet,” she said. “Like GBOS approval, liability insurance, a security deposit, and other conditions.”
Johnston said she’s comfortable with a temporary use permit being issued, so everyone can observe how things work out this year at the fair and make sure the right decision was made to permit camping on HLB land.
Johnston and Mehner both said they support Forest Fair and think it’s a good thing for the community, but security and responsible use of the land is their main concern due to the problems that occurred in 2007.
“Now we’re in 2009, and we’re saying ‘great’, we want to have a Forest Fair,” said Mehner. “But you need to do your homework here and provide all the security…but they need to go through a process. They want to camp in the middle of the creek, but there’s no way for anybody to get to them except to climb though the middle of the creek.”
Mehner stressed he is adamant that the island at Glacier Creek will not be allowed for camping this year for both security and safety concerns. He also said it was never authorized for camping in the past.
“They used the parks area, there was camping there, but it was totally unauthorized at the island,” he said.
Girdwood Fire Chief Bill Chadwick, who was forced to leave the island at Glacier Creek in 2007 because of threats of assault from campers, said he too strongly opposes camping on the island.
“I’m totally against that because we don’t have access out there,” he said. “Basically, I told them to build a bridge to the island, then I would support it. But if they’re going to have a campground there then I will have to be able to drive a fire truck and ambulance to it.”
Another fix to allow camping at Glacier Creek was to build a gravel path to the island, but Mehner said that would never be approved.
“The Corps of Engineers would almost laugh at us if we said we were going to build a gravel path to the island,” said Mehner, “and it would take us a year to get done, not just a few months.”
So it appears Forest Fair will likely be granted a permit to legally operate a couple of campgrounds, but not all three as they planned, leaving them in the dilemma of having to accommodate more campers than there are campsites, which is what they were trying to avoid in the first place.
However, HLB has taken their stand, and Forest Fair must play the hand it was dealt.
“There are a lot of things they (Forest Fair Committee) want, but they’re not going to get,” Mehner said, “and the island is one of them.”