12/8/2024
Land Use
NEW: Anchorage Multi-generational housing design initiative 2024 from Cook Inlet Housing Authority and AARP:
“The Anchorage AARP Multi-Generational Housing Design Initiative brings together local architects, builders, and community members to reimagine housing that works for all generations. This collaborative project explores innovative solutions for accessible, adaptable homes that allow residents to age in place while strengthening neighborhood connections.”
This CIHA page has links to the designs and narratives.
NEW: “Three Ways Anchorage Leaders Could Unlock More Homes” In Sightline. Discussion of more flexibility in the B-3 zone, special limitations, and multifamily residential design standards. These items at the Assembly: AO 2024-102, AO 2024-99, and AO 2024-104. There is an S version of 2024-104 in the laid-on-the-table items from the 12/3/2024 Assembly meeting.
NEW: “Anchorage’s downtown bus depot to reopen after decision to terminate hotel project”: In the ADN:
“The Anchorage Community Development Authority ended the deal with 6th Avenue Center LLC on Nov.1, halting plans that called for construction of a 12-story hotel on Sixth Avenue between G and H streets, people involved in the project said. The hotel project called for 242 units, including some for residential use. It would have been anchored against and supported by the eight-story 6th Avenue Parking Garage above the bus depot and mall…
Larry Cash, founder of RIM Architects, along with a group of Anchorage based partners revived the hotel project in 2021. Their development proposal faced problems when interest rates began rising in 2022. The increased rates pushed borrowing costs much higher, adding more than $10 million in expenses and making the project economically unviable at the moment, Cash said in an interview Monday.”
The acting director of People Mover also notes in the article that “The reopening of the transit center is unrelated to a separate effort that’s underway to find a permanent home for the transit center.”
NEW: “Repair delays possible after fire damages Anchorage senior apartments” from Alaska’s News Source: “The fire was mostly confined to the outside of the building and the attic. However, the sprinkler system that put out the flames left standing water in many of the apartments, damaging sheetrock and personal items.” A good example of why it’s important to have some extra capacity in the housing stock.
NEW: “Alaska could be facing its first long-term decline in population and resulting economic slowdown”In the ADN. We can assume that responsible and professional traffic modelers will be updating their driving growth projections accordingly.
NEW: “Parents, teachers say Anchorage school closure plan disproportionately impacts ‘least resilient’ students” in the ADN:
“If approved by the school board, those closures would affect Baxter, Lake Hood and Nunaka Valley elementary schools in Anchorage, and Fire Lake Elementary in Eagle River. The district plans to repurpose each of those buildings to serve existing charter schools… Fire Lake Elementary resource staff member Sandy Buchwald, who works with special needs students, said the geography of their current school acts as a protective factor for her students. “They’ll run. They’re elopers,” she said. At least now, she said, their school is secluded at the end of a rural road, rather than beside the Glenn Highway or the Old Glenn Highway, where the proposed alternative schools are located.”
On a related note, see this paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research:
“We examine the effect of school traffic pollution on student outcomes by leveraging variation in wind patterns for schools the same distance from major highways. We compare within-student achievement for students transitioning between schools near highways, where one school has had greater levels of pollution because it is downwind of a highway. Students who move from an elementary/middle school that feeds into a “downwind” middle/high school in the same zip code experience decreases in test scores, more behavioral incidents, and more absences, relative to when they transition to an upwind school.”
NEW: “Alaska education commissioner says districts should stop relying on remote instruction when weather forces school closures” in the ADN: “Bishop said that weather-related school closures were part of a broader problem of increasing school absences that may be contributing to students’ underperformance in school and poor preparation for post secondary education and employment.”
NEW: “Anchorage’s public cemetery is likely to run out of room for low-cost burials next summer.” In the ADN:
“As a result, more families are opting for stacked casket burials — putting coffins one on top of the other— and officials hoping for extra space donated by a religious organization are squeezing a few more graves into poorly mapped sections of the property’s historical section in the meantime… It’s estimated that the cemetery holds more than 15,000 graves. Nearly 2,000 spaces in the cemetery remain empty. But those are set aside for public reservations or private tracts saved for families or members of Anchorage’s public cemetery is likely to run out of room for low-cost burials next summer– public reservations or private tracts saved for families or members of specific groups and organizations such the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, The American Legion and Pioneers of Alaska….Voters rejected a bond this year to establish cemeteries in Eagle River and Girdwood.”
On the one hand it seems like the downtown cemetery might be the only place where Anchorage actually has real, objective issues with density; on the other hand 13% of the spaces are empty but reserved for potential future use.
ONGOING: Putting the brakes on Special Limitations: PZC case 2024-0124 at the 12/9/2024 PZC meeting. From the memo:
“It should be noted, however, that some of these same ordinances also include restrictions which appear to impose restrictions that may not be directly related to the public good.” Lots of examples of SLs in the memo, plus examples from other cities: “The City of Reno doesn’t have anything like a “Special Limitations.” We accomplish similar goals via use specific standards, overlays, and base zoning districts.”
LAST WEEK: Community and Economic Development Meeting (CEDC) on 12/5/2024.
Staff report on Title 23 building code updates and allowing small forms of shelter.
Planning department report including potential updates to manufactured housing code.
Update from ACDA on the downtown transit center and development there.
Report and discussion on transit supportive development corridors and tax abatements.
Presentation on special limitations at 43:44 detailing complications, density restrictions, and housing type limitations available here.
LAST WEEK: Project Anchorage:
Work session on an S Version.
Work session on community-raised impacts.
“OPINION: Reimagining Project Anchorage” in the ADN: "Project Anchorage suggests that it’s time for new community investment, but only provides a narrow scope of possibilities for that investment. What if we took the opportunity Project Anchorage presents to expand that scope, reimagining what investing in Anchorage can look like?”
LAST WEEK: Planning & Zoning Commission Meeting on 12/2/2024. Pushback against potential new housing in the Eklutna area citing traffic, salmon runs, the specter of apartments in single family neighborhoods, and the risk of machine gun fire. At least everyone seems to agree that speed limits and road design are a problem around 56:20, however. The Eklutna area Comp Plan Map amendment to Development reserve, the rezone to CE-B3/R3/I2, and the Abbott Loop comp plan and rezone from R-5 to B-3 were all recommended for approval.
LAST WEEK: Assembly Meeting on 12/3/2024. The assembly heard the first part of public hearing testimony on AO 2024-111 on transit supportive corridors and tax incentives, with more opportunities to speak at the 12/17/2024 meeting. This AO would update Transit-Supportive Corridors in the 2040 Land Use Plan.
Transportation
NEW: AKDOT has put the Fish Creek Trail Connector project “on hold” after 2 years of project work (although you wouldn’t know it from the project page). At almost 3 hours into the 12/5/2024 AMATS Technical Advisory Committee meeting, AMATS staff mentions:
“I guess I can go ahead and let everybody know but the project has been put on hold by DOT– they have canceled all their public meeting opportunities so I am not sure when people will be able to comment on this project other than providing comments to AMATS through a normal process”.
See the Parks & Recreation Director’s presentation around 2:04. Apparently out of the norm, project stakeholder Marathon Petroleum provides a presentation as well. Around 1:44, AMATS staff explains:
“We don't typically allow stakeholders to come present on projects because it's done through the project process. So this one is a little unusual. We received a request from the Deputy Commissioner of DOT, stepping in for some reason on this project, and it's through [Central Region Director] Sean Holland who asked for this to be added to the agenda.”
For more background on this item: the Fish Creek Trail Connection project kicked off in 2022, but has faced resistance from a few neighboring property owners attempting to block it. Some of these residents appear to be concerned about passersby, or losing exclusive access to AK railroad right-of-way which they seem to have appropriated as their own private yards. See also:
“The Alaska Railroad holds the fate of the Fish Creek Trail connection” from the Anchorage Park Foundation
“Proposed railroad land lease could block long-sought Anchorage bike path connection” in the ADN
“Seeking to block Fish Creek Trail Connection, members of prominent Anchorage family apply to lease public railroad land” in The Landmine
Comments for the meeting available here.
Also at the TAC meeting: update on projects for the Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP). HSIP projects are generally relatively small, targeted projects aimed at improving transportation safety, with a strong focus on pedestrian safety this year. The projects on the list have been nominated and will go through a statewide scoring and selection process before some of them will be selected for funding in 2025, others may be delayed to future years, and some may be folded into existing projects.
NEW: “Freezing rain advisories continue in southcentral” In Alaska’s News Source:
“A winter weather advisory for freezing rain will go through Friday at noon for Anchorage and north to the Susitna Valley to Broad Pass. By Friday afternoon, clearing skies could allow for some sunny breaks. Temperatures will drop to below freezing overnight, so icy patches are going to develop.”
From the UAF Geophysical Institute in 2022:
“Rain-on-snow is projected to increase throughout much of Alaska (including Fairbanks) as the climate continues to get warmer and wetter,” said Bieniek, a climate modeler and author of a recent paper on winter-rainfall events in Alaska. “Southern coastal areas may even see a transition from rain-on-snow to rain.”
NEW: “Any number is concerning’: APD continues increasing patrol to prevent further fatal vehicle-pedestrian collisions” In Alaska’s News Source: “Noll said the department is unsure what caused the spike this year. However, his team has noticed a trend of visibility issues in the 15 fatal cases this year. That, he said, includes a lack of overhead lighting, tinted windows and vehicle lighting.”
ONGOING: Public resistance to AKDOT’s Highway expansions: From Rogers Park Community Council’’s agenda and handout for December 2024:
“The Alaska Department of Transportation is planning to build a freeway through the Chester Creek greenbelt to connect the Seward and Glenn Highways. SHOW UP to testify on this plan.”
Events
NEW: ACHC: History of Housing Discrimination in Anchorage. January 24, 2025. From the event page:
“YWCA Alaska is hosting a space to learn more about housing discrimination in Anchorage, its history, how you can advocate for yourself if you're directly impacted and how to be an ally if you're not directly impacted. Join us as we learn from David Reamer Anchorage's history with housing discrimination and leave with the tools you need to make a difference.”
ONGOING: AKDOT’s Fairview/Airport Heights/Rogers Park Highway Project open house. The Seward to Glenn Connection project open house will be at the Anchorage Senior Activity Center on 19th avenue on Tuesday, 12/10/2024 from 430-630pm. ”DOT&PF is seeking feedback on refined alternative designs for the Seward to Glenn Connection Planning and Environmental Linkages (PEL) Study.” Provide comment through their website.