Code of Federal Regulations Title 43. Public Lands:  Interior § 43.2566.1 General procedures

(a) Reservations. The Alaska Railroad will file with the Secretary of the Interior, when deemed necessary, its recommendations for the reservation of such areas as in its opinion may be needed for townsite purposes. The Secretary of the Interior will thereupon transmit such recommendations to the President with his objections thereto or concurrence therewith. If approved by the President, the reservation will be made by Executive order.

(b) Survey. When in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior the public interests require a survey of any such reservation, he shall cause to be set aside such portions thereof for railroad purposes as may be selected by the Alaska Railroad, and cause the remainder, or any part thereof, to be surveyed into urban or suburban blocks and lots of suitable size, and into reservations for parks, schools, and other public purposes and for Government use. Highways should be laid out, where practicable, along all shore lines, and sufficient land for docks and wharf purposes along such shore lines should be reserved in such places as there is any apparent necessity therefor. The survey will be made under the supervision of the Bureau of Land Management.

(c) Preference right. Any person residing in a reserved townsite at the time of the subdivisional survey thereof in the field and owning and having valuable and permanent improvements thereon, may, in the discretion of the Secretary of the Interior, be granted a preference right of entry, of not exceeding two lots on which he may have such improvements by paying the appraised price fixed by the superintendent of sale, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Interior may prescribe. Preference right proof and entry, when granted, must be made prior to the date of the public sale.