06/09/2024
LAND USE
ONGOING: The Planning & Zoning Commission will discuss proposed updates to the 2040 Land Use Plan in support of the HOME zoning reform at their 6/10/2024 meeting. Staff packet.
ONGOING: HOME Zoning Reform is also on the agenda as item 13.A at the 6/11/2024 Assembly meeting. Assembly Clerk’s note on the agenda: “It is the intent of the sponsors' to continue the public hearing to June 25, 2024.”
ONGOING: AO2024-45(S) Clarification of the Assembly’s legislative powers is on the agenda as item 13.B at the 6/11/2024 Assembly meeting. This AO seems to be about who has the power to change code and set policy; while most people would expect that is the duty of the legislative body, the MOA planning department appears to disagree. The assembly informational memo provides the best overview and real spice in the discussion and is worth reading in full. Some excerpts:
“...the Department’s insistence that an ordinance passed by the 2014 Assembly could somehow legally “require” any department’s, committee’s, or commission’s action before the Assembly amends any provision of code, represents an impermissible infringement upon the Assembly’s legislative power as vested in the Charter.”
”...the Planning Department’s objection contradicts its own historical practice. As stated above, the whole Municipal Government appears to have been in accord, until quite recently, that waiver of Planning and Zoning Commission review is an inherent capability of the Assembly.”
“While there is evidence some members of the public have grown accustomed to longer more elaborate timelines, and several iterations of review for the same draft legislation, there is no legal foundation supporting this expectation...It is ultimately the Assembly’s responsibility and authority to make policy judgments and author code as it deems appropriate, and any attempt to abrogate or delegate that power, by any agent or agency of the municipality, strikes this office as wholly inappropriate.”
(On the reference to elaborate timelines: that housing opponents use process to delay reforms is well known (a, b, c), but it’s also always worth citing the 1944 CIA simple sabotage manual which laid out these tactics decades ago: “(3) When possible, refer all matters to committees, for ‘further study and consideration’...(8) Be worried about the propriety of any decision–raise the question of whether such action as is contemplated lies within the jurisdiction of the group or whether it might conflict with the policy of some higher echelon…”)
LAST WEEK: Discussing housing data, site access, projects, and land value tax at the 6/6/2024 Community & Economic Development Committee meeting. Specifics include the Assembly’s plans for a new housing data dashboard, discussion of the site access test fit report, a map of 2024 construction projects, and a presentation on Universal Building Exemptions, which appears to be a proposed land value tax (note that the universal building exemption presenter is the former Alaska State Assessor). Some interesting questions from Assembly Chair Constant on this about dealing with high-dollar Hillside development and running the city occurs around 1:14; the presenter doesn’t totally address it but does state: “Downtown is a place where a lot of people probably should be living.”
General discussion of the Site Access Saga appeared to settle on an agreement to establish a new working group to fix this set of regulations. The head consultant from the test fit report provided a higher level view of the issues at hand, and suggested that any working group would: “…need some policy guidance from the assembly and heavy support from the administration in how to address issues like how much of the burden to improve the built environment should be shouldered by the private sector, and how much we [the MOA] might be able to support the community with improvements to the street and the pedestrian infrastructure in town.…this code is trying to address the fact that some of our streets are not walkable, and trying to preserve those that are walkable, and so we need an investment in our streets, and the walkability of our streets, in association with improvements to this code to meet the goals of the community.”NEW: Extending the deteriorated area tax abatement in Fairview is item 10.G.1.at the 6/11/2024 Assembly Meeting. Apparently there have been very few applications for this particular abatement and it’s not fully understood why; the memo explains: “In order to catalyze the conversation over how to better incentivize property owners and developers to utilize the available tax exemptions and deferrals for properties within the Fairview/East Downtown Revitalization Area, the proposed ordinance is written broadly and suggests other modifications to AO 2014-71(S), not only the sunset expiration date, may be warranted.” Notably, the MOA property appraisal website does not seem to mention this tax abatement/exemption anywhere on the page.
NEW: New community facilities for Girdwood from Alaska News Source. “New developments could be coming to Girdwood, following a letter of intent that was signed by the YMCA of Alaska and the Alyeska Resort in late May. The two are moving forward with plans to create a recreational center for the ski town along with an ice rink.” This looks like it is part of the Alyeska master plan modification which was approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission at their 6/3/2024 meeting. A YMCA isn't a parks & rec facility, but somewhere in all this there might be an interesting larger discussion of how communities use zoning to create the conditions for extracting public amenities from new private developments.
TRANSPORTATION
NEW: Protected bike lane written up in the ADN: Quoting the executive director of the Anchorage Downtown Partnership: “Downtown has also been seeing a lot of new private development, including numerous new businesses, construction and major renovation projects, Krishna said, adding that it’s time for public investment in the area. “I think this is an exciting moment in our city where we get to look at how transportation works in the core of Anchorage and think about what facilities and resources we need to make that work for the next 30 years or 50 years,” Krishna said.” Other good news related to this item and mentioned in the article–there is apparently a new coffee shop across from the bike lane and Town Square Park.
NEW: AK DOT&PF has published a statewide database of ongoing projects. This new(?) dynamic map shows at least 30 projects in the Anchorage Bowl, 3 in Eagle River, and 3 around Girdwood.
LAST WEEK: AMATS 6/6/2024 Technical Advisory Committee Meeting. The Committee discussed Highway Safety Improvement Project (HSIP) nominations, AKDOT’s federally-mandated corrective actions to get the Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) approved, and the MOA’s Long Range Transportation Strategy. The STIP discussion is a bit dry, but it basically seems to boil down to the Federal Highway Administration requiring that AKDOT improve how it collaborates with the metropolitan planning organizations (AMATS in Anchorage, FAST in Fairbanks, and soon MVP in MatSu). MOA staff also provides an overview of the long range transportation strategy for the entire Municipality around 1:20:00.
NEW: A road naming dispute will go before the Assembly as item 14.E at their 6/11/2024 meeting. The Muni asked 10 property owners in Spenard about a new name for a currently-unnamed alley, and according to the memo from March 27, 2024: “We received a total of five votes, resulting in a tie. A coin toss was completed to determine the winner. The name Grimmauld Place won the best-of-three coin toss.” Several property owners are now protesting the name that won the toss.