In these regulations the following terms shall have the
meaning indicated unless the context clearly requires a different
meaning:
(1) "Act" means the Alaska
Land Act, AS 38.05;
(2)
"commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Department of Natural Resources of
Alaska;
(3) "director" means the
Director of the Division of Lands of the Department of Natural
Resources;
(4) "division" means the
Division of Lands within the Department of Natural Resources. Administrative
powers and other delegated duties as prescribed by law or regulations are
vested in the director;
(5) "filing
hours" are the hours between 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. on business days, which
are Mondays through Fridays, except holidays;
(6) "land" means all tide and submerged lands
under the jurisdiction of the division;
(7) "lease" means a lease issued or held
pursuant to chs. 58, 64 and 80 of this title;
(8) "order" means a determination made by the
director or the commissioner in accordance with authority lawfully vested in
him, issued in writing, filed in the permanent files of the division, posted in
a conspicuous place in the offices of the division, and made continuously
available for inspection by the public;
(9) "section" means a section of these
regulations;
(10) "part" means a
part of these regulations;
(11)
"person" means any person, firm, corporation, cooperative association,
partnership or other entity legally capable of owning land or an interest
therein;
(12) "occupant" means any
person as defined herein, or his successor in interest, who actually occupied
for any business, residential, or other beneficial purpose, tidelands, or
tidelands and submerged lands contiguous thereto, within the state, on or prior
to January 3, 1959, with substantial permanent improvements. The holder of a
permit of clearance in respect to interference of navigation, or of a special
use permit from a government agency will not qualify as an "occupant" unless
such entry on the land had, through exercise of reasonable diligence, resulted
in actual occupancy and substantial permanent improvements as hereinafter
mentioned. No person shall be considered an occupant by reason of having
(A) placed a fish trap in a position for
operation or storage upon the tide, shore, or submerged land;
(B) placed a setnet or piling therefor or any
other device or facility for taking of fish;
(C) placed pilings or dolphins for log
storage or other moorage;
(D)
placed floats or vessels upon the tide, shore or submerged land;
(E) placed telephone, power or other
transmission facilities, roads, trails or other improvements not requiring
exclusive use of possession of tide or contiguous submerged lands; or
(F) claimed the land by virtue of some form
of constructive occupancy.
Where land is occupied by a person other than the owner of
the improvements thereon, the owner of the improvements shall, for the purposes
of this section, be considered the occupant of such lands;
(13) "occupied or developed" means
the actual use, control, and occupancy, but not necessarily residence, of the
tide and contiguous submerged land by the establishment thereon of substantial
permanent improvements;
(14)
"improvements" shall mean buildings, wharfs, piers, dry docks, and other
similar types of structures permanently fixed to the tide or contiguous
submerged lands that were constructed and/or maintained by the applicant for
business, commercial, recreation, residential, or other beneficial uses or
purposes. In no event shall fill be considered a permanent improvement when
placed on the tidelands solely for the purposes of disposing of waste or
spoils. However, fill material actually utilized for beneficial purposes by the
applicant shall be considered a permanent improvement;
(15) "fill" shall mean earth, gravel, rock,
sand, or other similar materials placed upon tide or contiguous submerged lands
for the purpose of elevating the lands for a specific useful purpose. The
placement of earth, gravel, rock, sand, or other similar materials on tide or
contiguous submerged land solely for the purpose of spoils disposal and
thereafter abandoned and not used for any beneficial purpose shall not be
considered fill;
(16) "substantial
permanent improvement" shall for these regulations have the same meaning as
improvements defined in sec. 840(14);
(17) "reclaimed or constructed tide or
contiguous submerged lands" is here defined as those lands resulting by
purposeful filling of tide or contiguous submerged lands;
(18) "preference right," subject to the
classifications thereof established hereafter, means and includes the right of
an occupant to acquire by grant, purchase, or otherwise, at the election of the
occupant, except as otherwise limited or prescribed in this Act, any tract or
tracts of tideland, or tideland and submerged land contiguous thereto, occupied
or developed by such occupant on and prior to January 3, 1959;
(19) "Class I preference right." A Class I
preference right shall be extended to persons who occupied and developed tide
and contiguous submerged lands seaward of a surveyed townsite on and prior to
September 7, 1957, after executing a waiver to the state of all rights such
occupant may have had pursuant to Public Law
85-303. If the occupied and
developed land is seaward of a municipal corporation, a waiver must also be
made to the corporation. Upon execution of the waiver, such persons or their
successor in interest, have the right to acquire such occupied and developed
tide and contiguous submerged lands from the state or the municipality for a
consideration not in excess of the cost of survey, transferring and conveying
title.
A Class I preference right shall also be extended to persons
who occupied and developed tide and contiguous submerged lands not seaward of a
surveyed townsite on and prior to September 7, 1957. Such persons, or their
successor in interest, are not required to sign a waiver and shall have the
right to acquire such occupied and developed tide and contiguous submerged land
from the state for a consideration not in excess of the cost of survey,
transferring and conveying title;
(20) "Class II preference right." A Class II
preference right shall be accorded to Class I preference right claimants who
refuse to execute a waiver to the state or to the state and municipality of any
rights such occupants may have acquired pursuant to Public Law
85-303. It shall
be mandatory for such municipal corporation and the director to expeditiously
honor the application from the occupant after the Secretary of the Army has
submitted to the Secretary of the Interior and the Governor of the state maps
showing the pierhead line established by the Corps of Engineers with respect to
the tract so granted.
Pierhead lines have not been established in Alaska, nor is
the establishment of such lines probable in the forseeable future. Therefore,
the most expedient method of acquiring such lands occupied and developed
seaward of a surveyed townsite on and prior to September 7, 1957, is by
obtaining a Class I preference right;
(21) "Class III preference right" shall mean
the preference right extended to a person who occupied and developed tidelands
after September 7, 1957, and who continued to occupy the same on January 3,
1959. Such persons, or their successor in interest, have the right to acquire
such occupied and developed tidelands for a consideration not in excess of the
cost of appraisal, administering and transferring plus the appraised fair
market value thereof, exclusive of any value occurring from improvements or
development, such as fill material, building, or structures thereon;
(22) "permit preference" is herein defined as
that privilege of the upland owner to acquire first choice over other
non-preference right claimants to a permit for like use and enjoyment of the
state owned tide or contiguous submerged lands abutting his property;
(23) "lease or permit preference." The holder
of a valid Corps of Engineers Permit issued prior to November 15, 1959 may be
accorded preference to a lease or permit by the state if justified in
accordance with the policy of AS 38.05, as amended, and if in the best interest
of Alaska. Such preference shall be subordinate to all other preferences
recognized under this Act;
(24)
"upland owner" is herein defined as that owner whose upland property abuts the
line of mean high tide;
(25) "shore
lands" means all lands which are covered by non-tidal waters that are navigable
under the laws of the United States up to ordinary high water mark as
heretofore or hereafter modified by accretion, erosion, and
reliction;
(26) "tidelands" means
those lands which are periodically covered by tidal waters between the
elevation of mean high and mean low tides;
(27) "submerged lands" means those lands
covered by tidal waters between the line of mean low water and seaward to a
distance of three geographical miles or as may hereafter be properly claimed by
the state;
(28) "coast line" means
the line of ordinary low water along that portion of the coast which is in
direct contact with the open sea and the line marking the seaward limit of
inland waters;
(29) "mean high
tide" at any place subject to tidal influence shall be interpreted as the tidal
datum plane of the average of all the high tides as would be established by the
U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. "Mean High Water Line" shall be interpreted as
the intersection of the datum plane of mean high water with the
shore;
(30)
(A) "mean lower water" at any place subject
to tidal influence shall be interpreted as the tidal datum plane of the average
of the low tides as would be established by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic
Survey;
(B) "mean lower low water"
at any place subject to tidal influence shall be interpreted as the tidal datum
plane of the average of the lower of the two low waters of each day as would be
established by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey;
(31) "harbor line" is defined as that line
fixed by the Secretary of the Army which is the limit to which piers, wharves,
bulkheads, or other work may be extended in navigable waters without further
authorization, Section 11, River & Harbor Act of March 3, 1899 (30 Stat.
1151; 33 U.S.C.
404);
(32) "pierhead line" is defined as a line
fixed by the Corps of Engineers of the Department of Army that is parallel to
existing line of mean low tide at such distance offshore from the line of mean
low tide that said pierhead line shall encompass, to the landward, all
stationary, manmade structures (but shall not encompass any part of
breakwaters, bridges, or piers used for vessel dockage which part extends
beyond such a parallel line marking the seaward extremity of other manmade
structures) which were in existence as of February 1, 1957, to seaward of the
particular townsite for which the pierhead line is being established, and shall
encompass no more, Public Law
85-303 (71 Stat.
623) 1957;
(33) "natural resources" includes, without
limiting the generality thereof, oil, gas, and all other minerals, but does not
include fish, shrimp, oysters, clams, crabs, lobsters, sponges, kelp, and other
marine, animal and plant life, or water power, or the use of water for the
production of power;
(34)
"accretion" is defined as the gradual and imperceptible addition of new land to
old by the natural deposition of sediments, i.e., sedimentation;
(35) "monument" shall be as described in sec.
300(d);
(36) "fair market value" is
defined as the highest price, described in terms of money, which the property
would bring if exposed for sale for a reasonable time in the open market, with
a seller, willing but not forced to sell, and a buyer, willing but not forced
to buy, both being fully informed of all the purposes for which the property is
best adapted or could be used;
(37)
the singular number includes the plural;
(38) the masculine gender includes the
feminine and the neuter.