Eagle River can exit Anchorage or annex to Mat-Su: It’s the community’s choice

By MICHAEL TAVOLIERO AND CATHERINE MARGOLIN

When people in Chugiak–Eagle River talk about “leaving Anchorage,” they may mean two very different things:

1. Forming a new non-unified, home-rule borough called the Chugach Regional Borough through Eaglexit *or*
2. Joining the existing Matanuska–Susitna Borough through the Annex Now

Both options rely on the Local Boundary Commission and Article X for guidance and framework, but they lead to verydifferent outcomes and are at very different stages of development.

At its core, Eaglexit would detach Assembly District 2 and nearby lands from the

Municipality of Anchorage and incorporate a new, non-unified Chugach Regional Borough as a home-rule borough.Chugiak–Eagle River wouldn’t just leave Anchorage; it would gain full borough status with its own charter, assembly, school district, taxing authority, and service structure, all governed under a locally drafted charter that can exercise any power not prohibited by state law.

By contrast, Annex Now 2 Mat-Su does not create a new borough; it would attach Chugiak–Eagle River to the existing Mat-Su Borough. Residents would become Mat-Su Borough residents, represented by its assembly and served by its school district, likely through one or more local service areas. The charter, school district, and overall governance wouldremain Mat-Su’s, effectively trading one set of top-down constraints for another rather than gaining full local control.

Those structural differences are evident when one sees how far along each effort is.

Eaglexit has already submitted a full petition to the Local Boundary Commission for informal technical review, includinga home-rule charter, detailed boundaries, a legal brief on how detachment and incorporation meet constitutional andstatutory standards, and a transition plan for assets, liabilities, and service hand-offs.

In other words, Eaglexit is now being tested against the state’s actual rules: population, economy, geography, finances, and “best interests of the state.” Petitioners are working with LBC staff to make technical corrections and ensure the documents are complete and internally consistent.

By contrast, Annex Now is still in the political groundwork stage. Its materials focus on building support in Mat-Su andurging the Mat-Su Borough Assembly to back annexation. The group mentions submitting a preliminary concept to theLBC, but there is no publicly available full petition, detailed transition plan, or legal brief comparable to Eaglexit’s.

Annexation isn’t off the table, but at this point it remains more a campaign idea than a fully developed boundary-change proposal.

The “people and community” dimension also looks different under each route.

The Eaglexit vision is built around the idea that Chugiak–Eagle River is a distinct community of interest, recognizedrepeatedly in elections, redistricting, and public testimony, and that it should be able to govern itself as such. The Chugach Regional Borough charter, commissions, and school district design are aimed at giving this region its own decision-making center: local lawmakers, local school governance, and local services tailored to its geography and values. Such an incorporation is intended to spur healthy competition between municipal entities, driving stronger growth and productivity across the entire region. The political conversation is primarily between Assembly District 2 residents and the state: should this community be allowed to detach from the MOA and become its own borough?

Annex Now necessarily has two audiences.

First, it must convince Mat-Su residents and officials that annexing Chugiak–Eagle River is in the borough’s interest; financially, politically, and administratively.

Second, it must persuade Chugiak–Eagle River residents that they would be better off as neighborhoods within the Mat-Su Borough system, represented in a borough assembly and served by the existing Mat-Su Borough School District. Instead of adopting their own local charter, they would operate under Mat-Su’s existing second-class borough, general-law framework and institutional culture. As a second-class borough, Mat-Su provides areawide services, such as education, taxation, and planning, and can assume additional areawide or non-areawide powers, such as roads, law enforcement, or other local services, with voter approval, functioning through an elected mayor, assembly, and an appointed borough manager.

 The Eaglexit proposal grew out of the same American cornerstone: self-government and the conviction that people who live in a place should have the greatest say over how it is run. This system was built on the belief that, given real authority and responsibility, local communities will govern themselves better than distant bureaucracies who never live with the consequences of their decisions.

Annex Now grows from the same desire for stronger local voice but points in a different direction: joining a neighboring borough whose scale, culture, and priorities feel closer than Anchorage’s. Supporters see Mat-Su as a place where their voices might carry more weight in a smaller assembly and a school district less dominated by the Anchorage Bowl, even if that means entering an existing system instead of creating a new one.

Both paths raise federal and intergovernmental issues, especially around JBER and federal funding, and any boundary change affecting military lands, transport routes, or federal programs will require later coordination with federal agenciesafter the LBC process. At this point, Eaglexit has already folded these questions into a formal transition plan and legal analysis, while Annex Now has not yet shown comparable detail in its public materials.

So which route is “preferred”?

That depends on what one values. For those who prioritize maximum local self-government and a custom-built system for schools and services, the Eaglexit path, detachment plus incorporation as a home-rule borough, most directly implements the Framers’ idea of strong, locally controlled governments under Article X. It is also, at this point, the path that is more technically developed, with a full petition in the LBC pipeline.

For those who prefer joining a larger, established borough with an existing school district and administrative apparatus, annexation to Mat-Su is conceptually simpler: there is no new borough to stand up, but there is also less structural autonomy for Chugiak–Eagle River as a distinct governmental unit.

On the specific question of which effort is “prepared with all the people, community, and federal requirements,” thehonest answer is that neither has completed the entire gauntlet of state and federal approvals that comes only after LBCreview, any other action, and local votes. However, in terms of readiness that can be observed today, Eaglexit is more fully formed on paper and deeper into the required state process, while Annex Now remains an early-stage annexation campaign seeking political green lights before it can be translated into a complete, legally rigorous petition.

Whether the path is a new Chugach Regional Borough under Eaglexit or annexation into Mat-Su, the core question is simply this: what form of governance will best allow the people of Chugiak–Eagle River to make informed, effective decisions about their own schools, services, and community priorities?

Michael Tavoliero is a co-founder and Catherine Margolin is current chair of Eaglexit.

Michael Tavoliero: Tribute to my Eaglexit colleagues