newsminer.com

PALMER — Plans for a hotel in Denali State Park have been put on hold so that officials in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough can take a closer look at the builder’s finances and the hotel’s potential impact on the park.

The borough planning commission spent more than an hour Tuesday discussing the $12 million project before putting Anchorage businessman Dale Van Doren’s request for a conditional use permit on hold until April 7.

Van Doren wants to build a 60-room lodge on six privately held acres near Mile 135 Parks Highway. He says the lodge would provide much-needed jobs and hotel rooms for the area.

He also says it will blend in with the surrounding park much more than existing businesses.

But the commissioners expressed concern it could spur another Glitter Gulch, a strip of highway outside Denali National Park packed with hotels, gift shops, cafes and other tourist-oriented businesses.

They also wanted to know if Van Doren could pay for what he has estimated is a $12 million project.

“I’m not going to get into that in very much detail,” he said, when asked about his finances.

Borough planning staff are opposed to Van Doren’s request.

Online databases of state and federal court records show Van Doren has had at least 21 small-claims cases and six debt cases filed against him in the past 15 years in Alaska. He also filed for bankruptcy in Anchorage in 2004.

Van Doren needs borough approval because the site is within the park and is governed by a borough land-use plan that requires a construction permit. The property is located across the highway from the site of a proposed National Park Service visitor center and Van Doren hopes to capitalize on traffic drawn to the center.

Van Doren said that his three-story lodge would be buffered by trees, take up no more than two acres and fit in with the surrounding wilderness. It would also be eco-friendly, relying on solar panels and wind turbines for power and tapping filtered runoff from the roof for fire fighting and toilets, he said.

“I want to see quality development done here that’s not going to take away from the beauty, integrity and character of the park,” he told the commissioners.