Plan Overview

Encompassing about 301,310 acres, the State of Alaska’s Hatcher Pass Planning Area is located in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough north of Wasilla and Palmer in the southern foothills of the Talkeetna Mountains. The original Hatcher Pass Management Plan by the Alaska Department of Natural Resources for the area was developed in 1986, amended in 1989, and both were superseded in 2010 with the adoption of the revised Hatcher Pass Management Plan. The area covered by the current Hatcher Pass Management Plan is divided into ten units, of which the Government Peak Unit is one. The 2010 revision of the Hatcher Pass Management Plan was made for a variety of reasons that included, but were not limited to:

• Changes in land ownership. The Borough now owns portions of the area, including the more developable portions of the Government Peak Unit.
• Enactment of Legislatively Designated Areas (for example, the Hatcher Pass Public Use Area and Independence Mine State Historic Park).
• Transfer of interest in and management responsibility for the development of a ski area/resort in the Government Peak Unit. In addition to the conveyance of State land in this area to the Borough as part of their municipal entitlement, the State Department of Natural Resources through a Development Lease1 granted the authority for development of the lease area to the Borough.