Agnew::Beck has completed community and recreation plans throughout the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, including Comprehensive Plans for six communities and recreation and tourism plans for Talkeetna and several specific waterfronts and parks. These projects were all approved locally and by the Mat-Su Borough Assembly. In all these plans we have been responsible for understanding goals for community quality of life, economic development, infrastructure improvement and environmental protection. As part of these projects, A::B has successful conducted more than 100 public workshops and citizen-driven planning team work sessions in the Borough. Comprehensive plans prepared in the Borough included adopted plans in Palmer, Talkeetna, Big Lake, the Butte, Meadow Lakes, and the Sunshine “Y” area. The Big Lake Comprehensive plan is a good recent example of one such Comprehensive Plan. Big Lake’s residents, landowners and other stakeholders were well-represented in this highly participatory comprehensive planning process which included regular meetings of the Big Lake Planning Team, public workshops, and the creation of planning work groups for specific key topics. This plan was approved locally and by the Borough Assembly in 2011, and given the 2012 Comprehensive Plan of the Year award by the Alaska Chapter of the American Planning Association. The plan was completed on schedule and budget; the project manager was Shelly Wade of Agnew::Beck; Chris Beck was Principal in Charge.
Mat-Su Community Plans
Recreation planning projects in the Mat-Su Borough include the Talkeetna Riverfront Plan, XYZ/Talkeetna Lakes, Fish and Numbered Lakes Management Plan, and France Road Plan. These projects all focused on areas of land near to communities where a variety of uses were occurring and the level of use was increasing, both by the local community and visitors. Major issues in these projects included: mediating between different recreational users, developing master plans for planned recreation facilities, and developing realistic implementation strategies to pay for new or improved facilities, and for ongoing operations.
