Plan

Mat-Su Borough Historic Preservation Plan Update

The Mat-Su Borough is updating its historic preservation plan, and we are looking for your input! The current plan was adopted in 1987, so an update is needed. The plan is intended to guide community-based historic preservation for the next decade.

The Draft Historic Preservation Plan is Now Available for Public Comment

The draft Mat-Su Borough Historic Preservation Plan is now open for public review and comments until August 1, 2026. This document was developed through extensive stakeholder participation and community engagement over the past few years, including stakeholder interviews, public meetings and open houses, MSB Historical Preservation Commission reviews, focus groups, subject matter expert reviews, and comments from community members like you. We look forward to your feedback on this draft to ensure the final plan is an effective resource for community-led historic preservation over the next decade.

Review the draft plan

An Overview of the Plan Update Process

The plan update began in 2020, with a focus on community-developed priorities. The process was split into two phases. Phase I focused primarily on stakeholder and public outreach to better gauge public sentiment about and understanding of historic preservation in the Borough. This culminated in drafting the updated plan’s mission, vision, goals, and strategies, guiding the work done in Phase II.

Phase II started in 2022 and consisted of building out a framework for the updated plan that would allow the document to be user-friendly, informative, and justify continued work in the field of historic preservation based on public and stakeholder goals. Additional outreach was conducted through public meetings and stakeholder conversations. The draft plan, delayed due to staff turnover, was written over the past two years, incorporating all that we learned from stakeholders and experts from around the Mat-Su Borough.

Background

The current plan, adopted in 1987, established goals, objectives, and actions to guide the HPC and Mat-Su Borough staff. It sought to institutionalize historic preservation into Borough planning and management and focused on actions the Historical Preservation Commission and staff could take in support of that aim. The plan was shaped by the fact that historic preservation was a relatively new concept for the Mat-Su Borough, and it reflected the needs and interests of the Assembly, administration, and public at that time. Reading through the 1987 plan, many of the goals, objectives, and actions are as relevant today as they were forty years ago. At the same time, an effective historic preservation plan must reflect the community’s current priorities, possibilities, and limitations. It is likely that the Mat-Su region today would be unrecognizable in some respects to those who developed the 1987 plan, especially in the more urbanized areas. A significant amount of work has also been accomplished since the 1980s, which is recognized and described in this updated plan.

With continued support from the local community, and with consideration to continued rapid population growth and demographic change in the region, we have created an adaptable plan shaped by the priorities of individuals and organizations involved in historic preservation and cultural resource management across the Borough. It also reflects the very limited staff capacity for the Mat-Su Borough to do on-the-ground activities, thus emphasizing the need to work collaboratively and in support of grassroots champions at the local level even more than the last plan did. It is the intent of this plan update to meet the needs of today while honoring and building upon these foundational efforts.