04/21/2024

Land Use

• NEW: Sidewalk dining downtown AO 2024-43 is item 10.G.3 on the agenda for the April 23rd, 2024 assembly meeting.From the memo: “Businesses in the Central Business District currently apply for and obtain sidewalk encroachment permits under our existing code. Former permittees have advocated for additional dining opportunities currently unavailable in the existing code. This ordinance proactively allows the Director of Development Services to waive the 8’ of contiguous sidewalk adjacent to encroachments provided the Development Services Director determines the decision is in the best interest of the public”

• NEW: Potter Marsh Park Assembly Memo is item 10.F.1 at the April 23rd, 2024 meeting. “Great Land Trust, Inc. (GLT), with the support of the Municipality of Anchorage (MOA), is working to create a new 300-acre park immediately adjacent to Potter Marsh. GLT is purchasing 200 acres of undeveloped land from GCI and is working with the MOA to dedicate the GCI property and 100 acres of adjacent MOA Heritage Land Bank (HLB) property for parkland and conservation.”

• ONGOING: ACDA’s JBER 4plexes. From the memo: “The ACDA Attainable Housing Project will acquire tax-foreclosed parcels at 202 and 204 E. Fireweed Lane from the MOA and intends to subsequently relocate two 4-plex buildings from JBER, creating eight affordable housing units. This initiative is designed to address a critical need within Anchorage for more accessible and attainable housing options.” Item 11A at the April 23rd, Assembly meeting.

• ONGOING: Rezoning the Archives site from R-3 to R-4A. From the memo: “The parcel was originally purchased by the Federal Government in 2004 and intended to be a National Archives Building. The site has been owned by the Municipality of Anchorage since 2017. The request to rezone to the R-4A District reflects the intent of the Municipality of Anchorage to see a mixed-use development with high-density multifamily dwellings.” Recall that this is the case where the planning department was unable to answer why, exactly this R-4A zone is desirable. Item 11.B.

• ONGOING: Site Access Saga: AO 2024-24 (item 13.A) seeks to address issues with the original 2023-50 passed last year. Sometime after the standards came into effect the planning department appears to have commissioned a study (“Site Access Test Fit Report”) to look at how the changes might impact development feasibility. Generally speaking, you can build in the locations they tested as long as you don’t add too much parking. The department’s memo concludes:

“…the recently adopted site access and pedestrian frontage standards, with the recommended clean-up amendments in AO 2024-24, do not impose excessive or undue difficulty on the development of 3- and 4-plex construction on 50-foot-wide lots without secondary or alley access, provided that favorable conditions are available. 

Should the site be subject to topography, unique lot geometry, buffer landscaping requirements, and/or utility easements, greater code flexibility would be needed to overcome these challenges if the development is providing off-street parking.”

Oddly enough, the clean-up ordinance available online (AO 2024-24) does not appear to include any proposed corrections addressing the issues mentioned in the second line above. A deeper dive into the actual Site Access Test Fit Report itself provides some interesting observations and recommendations that don’t seem to have made it into the staff memo or the clean-up ordinance either:

• Get rid of the stuff that doesn’t seem to be doing anything: “Amend the Pedestrian Amenities requirements: It is unclear which of the “pedestrian amenities” menu items address health and safety and which are aesthetic recommendations. The team suggests removing all standards that are optional or are only included for aesthetics."

• You can have car housing or people housing: “A simple matter of geometry; the more cars housed on the site, the more difficult it became to find room for housing on the site. ”

• Housing is the same character as housing: “Multifamily zoning districts should not be considered equivalent under code to “nuisance” zoning districts like high-intensity business districts or industrial.”

• Open space rules haven’t been that effective, improve our public spaces: “Private open space has become a common requirement in zoning due to the deterioration of our public streets and disinvestments in social public places like plazas and parks. Furthermore, in practice, the private open space in new market-rate developments is crammed into whatever leftover space is available when all other site and building needs have been met. It rarely functions well. The design team was relieved that open space requirements for small multifamily developments are no longer required and fervently encourages the municipality to focus on improving public spaces so that private open space is not needed in our more urban environments in areas where this is an issue instead.”

• Stop trying to sneak in parking mandates:“The team was under the impression that all required parking minimums had been eliminated from code. It appears that 21.90.001 is an attempt to solve for a right-of-way management problem. Consider eliminating the guest parking requirement in 21.90.001 and improving street parking ordinance enforcement.” (Recall that the chair of the planning and zoning commission called this out at the October 2, 2023 when he  asked in regard to section: “So it’s like the secret place where there still are parking requirements?”)

• LAST WEEK: Housing Success Stories. Discussion of recent successes in getting people into permanent housing, rent assistance, housing people on church property, and housing as a solution to homelessness.  See some interesting designs for small types of shelter here and here.

• NEW: Tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and emergency service providers. From the memo: “The proposed ordinance would allow volunteer firefight[er]s, emergency medical technicians, and paramedics to claim an exemption of $10,000 from the assessed value of their home for property tax purposes as provided under AS 29.45.050(r). This change to code would convey a small, but substantive, measure of gratitude from our Municipality to people who perform an invaluable function for the people of Chugiak and Girdwood.” Not throwing shade on emergency service providers or community volunteers, but there is an interesting discussion here somewhere about communities that don't collect enough tax to pay for services, and then further reduce their tax base to compensate the volunteers filling in to provide those services. Item 14J at the April 23rd, 2024 Assembly meeting.

Transportation

• LAST WEEK:  Assembly Transportation Committee Meeting. Agenda and meeting materials.

• Traffic department report on traffic calming projects, school safety projects, a new vision zero coordinator position (hiring now), protected bike lane pilot, and two presentations (1, 2) from a recent fact-finding tour to Finland.

• Planning department report on the Downtown Streets Engineering Study and the Long Range Transportation Strategy. A few excerpts: “Literally anything would [be] better than ‘using technology in innovative ways’. Our transportation grid does not need to become part of the internet of things”, “Buy out DOT and reclaim Anchorage”, and “Create input processes that don't overly favor the input of wealthy people with free time and connections.”

• NEW: May is Bike Month and May 17th is Bike to Work Day. Assembly resolution.

• NEW: Anchorage Recreational Trails Plan. This appears to be a project underway.

• LAST WEEK: AMATS Policy Committee