07/21/2024

Written By Guest User

Land Use

  • PASSED: AO 2024-64, which asserted the Assembly’s power to set land use policy and waive certain reviews, passed 7-3. Read assembly memo 579-2024 here. Testimony in favor: 

“I imagine that the PZC was never intended to be a vanguard against changes to code--or a political stumping ground, where people who show up and testify at assembly meetings can show up and say the exact same things to a group of unpaid volunteers ” 

From Girdwood:

“I spent five hours yesterday evening sitting just over there going through planning and zoning commission review of the Girdwood Comprehensive Plan. And it took about—including work from consultants—preparation and some responses—about 5% of our budget was spent on that particular meeting last night. And we’re going to do exactly the same thing in a few weeks or months when it comes in front of the assembly…it doesn’t feel like a very valuable exercise sometimes…”

Testimony in opposition (from some familiar voices from Anchorage's suburbs) complained that the ordinance “invites excessive speed”, “avoids professional planning analysis” and “precludes input from professional staff.” Recall that–as Assembly member Zaletel pointed out later in the evening–it is MOA’s professional planning staff who have regularly advocated for the use of these waivers on the items they do like, but then opposed them for the items they don’t. Assembly member Brawley also observed that the idea of having the Planning and Zoning Commission review every text amendment to Title 21 appears to have originated with the Denver-based consultant hired to write Title 21 over a decade ago; and based on their memos that firm may not have had a full understanding of how a legislative body is the one to actually create policy. 

  • NEW: The Assembly adopted a strategic plan for homelessness calling for building 150 new housing units per year. This was item 10.B.2 at the 7/16/2024 Assembly meeting, but written up in Alaska’s News Source. The MOA no longer seems to be posting summaries of permit activity reports so it is difficult to see how this many units would compare with other types of market construction.

  • RECOMMENDED FOR APPROVAL: The Planning & Zoning Commission reviewed the Girdwood Comprehensive Plan and recommended it for approval, with changes, at their 7/15/2024 Meeting. Lots of discussion about vegetative buffers around development and how much of Girdwood will be designated as land for housing versus open space. Note that the designations for the “single family residential” and the “low density residential” categories in central areas of the town are nearly identical on both the 1995 and 2024 land use maps, suggesting a wan commitment to expanding development flexibility in central areas in the future. The Imagine Girdwood organization appears to have posted a response to PZC’s decision on their website.

  • NEW: Anchorage parking reform mentioned in Strong Towns: “Parking reform in Anchorage was, in some ways, promoted and passed as the keystone of an ambitious pro-housing agenda that has continued to bear fruit.”

  • NEW: Demographics check: From the Alaska Beacon: “Alaska’s population is set to significantly decline by 2050, according to a new forecast from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development…The state’s forecast is critical for urban planners and others who need to calculate demand for schools, transportation, utilities and commerce.” Hopefully this information gets shared with any of the other state agencies which still seem to be operating and building on assumptions of constant vehicular traffic growth decades into the future.

  • LAST WEEK: Parks and Rec held an open house for improvements to Peratrovich Park on 7/19/2024. See the proposed master plan here.

Transportation

  • LAST WEEK: Assembly Transportation Committee meeting highlights:

    • The MOA Traffic department presented on the protected bike lane and the results of posting a permanent radar sign that tells people how fast they are speeding: On the first day the radar was installed 92% of drivers were driving faster than 30 MPH; 11 days after it was installed, only 17% of drivers were driving faster than 30 MPH.

    • AKDOT provided a rare glimpse of infrastructural reality facing the entire region: “From our estimate there’s hundreds of millions of dollars worth of infrastructure [culverts, storm drains, etc]  that’s damaged just under the surface…it’s a huge problem to try to resolve because everybody always focuses on the stuff on top but never on the stuff underneath, because everybody doesn't see it but it's failing”.

    • Transit: Staff affirmed that the bus should be for everyone, new buses are equipped with cashless (tap card) technology for conversion in in the future, and Assembly member Bronga asked about why we don’t have more hike & bus service to local trailheads (answer: People mover would restart previously-existing routes before opening new ones, and also doesn’t want to compete with private entities if they are still shuttling people between trailheads).

    • The MOA long range planning division provided updates on the Downtown Streets Engineering Study and Long Range Transportation Strategy.

  • LAST WEEK: The AMATS Policy Committee approved a letter of revealing comments on AKDOT’s Statewide Transportation Improvement Plan (STIP) amendment at their 7/18/2024 meeting. The entire explanation of the substance of the letter is worth watching, especially the explanation of how AKDOT intends to borrow against future income through a process called advance construction. Towards the end of the meeting, Assembly member Littlefield asks AMATS staff if this type of process happens every year, to which staff responds:

“Is this common? …No. I personally, until this STIP cycle, I have never written a letter like this on the STIP, and I don’t know if the previous director had ever written a letter like this on the STIP, or the Policy Committee had forwarded a letter like this.” 

Here is the STIP page and here is the page to provide STIP comments. It’s worth repeating that the Seward Highway widening project (STIP ID 12461) is now budgeted at $1.49 billion. 

“Police said patrol officers had responded just before noon Saturday to a report of a two-vehicle crash at Mile 114. An initial investigation indicated that a Kia heading north on the highway, toward Anchorage, crossed over the double-yellow center line and hit a Ford F-150 pickup that was traveling south, police said…The cause of the crash is still under investigation, according to police. The department said that alcohol was “believed to be a factor on behalf of the Kia’s driver,” who wasn’t identified in the update.” 

Which would have been a better solution for preventing this tragedy: four lanes and more speed, or 2 lanes with a median divider and less speed? Road design, entirely controllable, is the fundamental component of traffic safety.

  • ONGOING: People Mover service cuts: Read about the proposal and provide feedback here.

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