Local transportation planners and the Alaska Department of Transportation (DOT) aren’t seeing eye to eye on legal mechanisms that govern how to program funds for some highway projects in the Fairbanks area.
That discord surfaced in a short quarrel Wednesday over a pending intergovernmental operating agreement, which would in part address a question as to whether the local agency will maintain – or relinquish – certain controls.
In the past couple years, Fairbanks Area Surface Transportation (FAST) Planning has excluded certain projects from their planning documents that the state transportation department says they have to include.
That matters because, when a project falls within FAST’s jurisdiction, it must appear in both the state and local planning documents to receive federal funds often essential to construction.
The state says its transportation department has the authority to choose projects on the national highway system (NHS) and that those must then appear on FAST’s short-range plan when they are within the organization’s planning boundaries. Inside those boundaries are NHS corridors including the Richardson, Parks and Steese highways.
But the policy board for FAST Planning has been using its own discretion, at times opting not to list certain NHS projects in the organization’s plans.
In a letter to the policy board dated Feb. 11, Alaska DOT Deputy Commissioner and Acting Northern Region Director Katherine Keith communicated the state’s position. She wrote that FAST exercising that authority has “disrupted what was previously a cooperative highway planning process and is impeding the State’s project delivery.”
At a Wednesday policy board meeting, FAST Planning Executive Director Jackson Fox said Keith’s letter misinterprets laws and regulations outlining authority over the applicable national highway systems projects.
He said the letter cites Alaska Statute from the 1970s and 80s that conflicts with more recent legislation, and that it refers to regulations that don’t apply to his organization.
“When you go to that section of U.S. code, it does strictly relate to transportation management areas with a population of over 200,000. So, in the State of Alaska, this section of U.S. code only applies to Anchorage. It does not apply to us," he said.
But Keith was unconvinced Wednesday, saying the letter had input from the Alaska Department of Law.
“Jackson, I appreciate your memo. I didn’t realize that you had a legal background or that you were a lawyer. ... If we’re saying that the legal opinion of the Attorney General’s Office is incorrect, I would recommend that that be prepared in writing," she said.
There’s another layer to the kerfuffle. FAST Planning submitted a proposal to the governor’s office in December 2023 that would expand its boundaries using 2020 U.S. Census Data, an update that’s required by federal regulations.
But Alaska DOT has yet to recommend that Gov. Dunleavy sign the boundary change proposal. Keith’s letter states that FAST Planning’s policy board must first accept the intergovernmental operating agreement that would spell out some of the decision-making powers in question.
In a 4-2 vote Wednesday, the FAST Policy Board instead voted to table the operating agreement indefinitely, and board member Scott Crass suggested seeking out legal counsel to help relieve friction.
“I want to make clear that I’m not doing this in any way to choose sides or be adversarial. I think it would behoove us to ensure that we’re on very solid legal footing,” he said.
The vote means that the expansion of FAST Planning’s jurisdiction is also tied up for now, though the agencies have a deadline to finalize new boundaries by the end of 2026.