07/28/2024
Land Use
NEW: New development & reuse projects:
New Supportive housing in Midtown: In Alaska’s new source: “Q’et’en Qenq’a, meaning Elder’s House in the Dena’ina language, is meant for people ages 55 and older who are experiencing homelessness… the Midtown facility includes 45 permanent supportive housing units along with six recuperative care units. The care units cater to homeless individuals who need a safe place to heal immediately following a discharge.” This might be the biggest new housing development of the year so far, and also a key step forward for addressing homelessness.
New Oaxacan restaurant in Spenard written up with other new businesses in the ADN. The location is just across the street from where the Cook Inlet Housing Authority recently built a lot of new housing, including new townhouses on 36th. Would this new small business have been possible without Anchorage’s 2022 parking reform?
NEW: Assembly regular meeting on July 30, 2024. Not too much going on for a change, but two items of note:
Item 10.F.1.is the Office of the Ombudsman 2023 Annual Report, which makes for some interesting reading (if not directly connected to land use). Or maybe it is related: the most cases last year came from the Fire Department, Police Department, and Development Services. Development Services has been in the top three for complaints received every year since 2020 (see page 9/28).
Item 13.A. is AO 2024-51, an ordinance to “refine the definition of the “electric bicycle” and increase equitable access and improve user safety on two-way mixed-use trails and sidewalks”. There’s also now an S version which allows for the use of electric scooters and adopts the three-class ebike definition that has been widely used elsewhere. It would allow Class 1 and 2 ebikes on trails, but would define Class 3 ebikes (which are already common around Anchorage) as motorized vehicles that would not be allowed on paved trails or pathways. This item has been continued from the 5/21/2024 and 6/25/2024 meetings.
NEW: Design standards and development delays. The public documents portal has a new application posted for alternative equivalent compliance (AEC) for a new eatery and coffeeshop in Girdwood (see the 3/3/2024 bulletin for how this development benefited from the recent parking reform). In general, AECs are situations where developers have to plead with the planning department that what they are trying to build meets the intent of some complex or highly specific piece of code. In this case, the violated sections appear to be about Girdwood aesthetics:
21.09.080.F.2.d: “No wall shall be longer than 42 feet without a change or alteration in alignment of at least four feet in depth from the plane of the referenced wall. For building sides longer than 64 feet, the combined length of the segments not in plane with the primary wall plane of the building side shall equal at least one-third of the building side length.”
21.09.080.F.4.a: “A key element of Girdwood mountain style for commercial, community and resort buildings is the use of porches with shed roofs to define entrances. To the maximum extent feasible, all buildings shall utilize porches constructed in accordance with the following standards: a. Landing Height Where landings are used, they shall be a minimum of eight inches higher than adjacent walkways or streets…vii. Elevation above Grade Arcaded or roofed walkways shall be elevated at least eight inches above grade.
It’s difficult to tell how much one of these AECs cost or how long they are supposed to take. Are code provisions like these addressing any real community problem? Is the AEC process to get around the provisions a good use of public resources? AECs, like director interpretations, are “solutions” to allow basic functionality in an increasingly complex system. An alternative: just change the code so it isn’t that complicated in the first place.
ONGOING: Rezoning parcel downtown from PLI to B-2C. Case packet, mentioned here previously as subdivision case # S12780. From the application: “No specific development is planned at this time, but SCF has identified that B-2C zoning will offer greater flexibility for uses that the organization is considering, such as permitting health services and other related uses by right.” The Downtown section of zoning code was recently updated (and apparently significantly simplified) in 2023.
ONGOING: New Potter Marsh watershed park: From Alaska Public:
“Great Land Trust has spent years securing over $6 million to buy 200 acres of nearby land from telecommunications company GCI. The trust is currently working on raising the final $500,000 for the purchase. The city is also adding 100 acres from the Heritage Land Bank. Together, those 300 acres will make the new Potter Marsh Watershed Park.”
Comment from the surrounding suburbs:
““As Rabbit Creek Community Council, we meet monthly and we look at any developments in our area,” Rappoport said. “We have always recommended that it would be better for this area to remain open space.””
NEW: Anchorage mentioned in the 2024 Economic Report of the President. Chapter 4, “Increasing the Supply of Affordable Housing: Economic Insights and Federal Policy Solutions” includes this excerpt:
“Zoning is one of the most significant regulatory powers of local government, and research shows reform can unlock economic growth and opportunity (Flint 2022). Zoning reforms that are likely to increase housing supply include allowing more multifamily housing to be built (especially near public transportation hubs), legalizing accessory dwelling units (ADUs), and eliminating minimum parking requirements, minimum lot sizes, minimum square feet requirements, and density restrictions. None of these reforms prevent new single-family home construction; rather, the changes prevent municipalities from requiring only single-family homes. Some steps taken in recent years include: Buffalo became the first major U.S. city to abolish minimum parking requirements in 2017 (Poon 2017). Recently, more cities have followed suit, including Anchorage, San Jose, and Gainesville.”
NEW: Assembly Community and Economic Development Committee meeting on August 1, 2024 from 9:00-10:30 am.
Transportation
NEW: AMATS Trails Survey open for comment. Take the survey here.
NEW: AMATS Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting on 8/1/2024 from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. AMATS staff have provided a memo on AKDOT’s Alaska Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) and an attachment which shows Alaska’s top 16 high risk corridors and intersections. Interestingly, the corridor of the Seward Highway planned for the State’s $1.5 billion Seward Highway Widening project–repeatedly justified as crucial for safety–is not shown on this list.
NEW: Liability for dangerous roads. The families of a couple killed by a drunk driver two years ago are suing 4 bars downtown for overserving alcohol. “Davis, now 25, was speeding when he struck a blue Hyundai at the intersection of Cordova Street and East 15th Avenue during the early hours of Aug. 21, 2022, criminal charges filed against him said. A witness told investigators Davis appeared to be driving 80 to 90 mph when he hit the Hyundai, causing the other car to hit a tree and catch fire, the charges said.” Perhaps liability will eventually reach the traffic engineers who design these types of roads and make this kind of driving physically possible in the center of a city.
ONGOING: Update on Downtown’s protected Bike Lane in Alaska’s news source:
“‘One thing that we heard from Anchorage Downtown Partnership is that their bike corrals have been full, completely full during their events, 90 to 100 bikes’ Coy said. ‘So it’s been a way that they can accommodate increased activity without having those people have to compete for the parking…’ Coy said nearly all the negative comments have come from drivers. ‘Anchorage has been designed pretty much with a car in mind,’ he said. ‘You can get pretty much anywhere in Anchorage with a car and people are used to that, so we are very aware that that’s a mindset that we have here in Anchorage.””
Here’s some public commentary from 7/27/2024 on 6th avenue with no cars, fully open to people. Seems fine, actually.
ONGOING: Provide comments on the statewide transportation improvement plan (STIP) by August 5th. Here is the STIP page and here is the page to provide STIP comments. The AMATS Policy Committee letter on the STIP from 10 days ago is still a must-read.
Mayoral Transition
NEW: Bonds selling, but ratings dropped: The mayor’s office released two press releases last week related to the long term stability of the city: one on the MOA successfully selling recent general obligation bonds, another on the MOA’s bond rating getting downgraded by S&P. From the report: “The downgrade reflects our view of Anchorage's weakened financial management practices, as reflected in our revised financial management assessment (FMA) to standard from good, and a contributing factor to the trend of negative fund balances in the general fund in fiscal years 2021 and 2022, along with delayed release of the fiscal 2022 audited financial statement.”
ONGOING: Transition report. An interview with the City’s chief administrative officer on the recent transition report in Alaska Public:
“What comes through in the transition report in a number of departments is that it’s a combination of several factors. But one of them is certainly market wages and how it has become increasingly difficult to hire bus drivers into the municipality’s public transit service system. It has been increasingly difficult to woo snowplow graders who hold commercial driver’s licenses away from the school district, who increased their salaries and benefits in response to, two summers ago, when the school bus system was starting to crash, or as compared to the North Slope or to the Association of General Contractors contract rates.”
“So part of what I think is coming home to roost is the municipality having to make do more self sufficiently and without the traditional state support that it received in the go-go era of the higher oil price days in the ’80s and even in the ’90s.”
Automobile dependency is expensive; after Fire and Police, Maintenance and Operations is the MOA’s 3rd largest budget category. According to the street maintenance page, “The Street Maintenance Section maintains 1,281 lane miles of Municipal roads and approximately 200 miles of sidewalks and trails. A staff of over 100 full time and seasonal employees provide continual service to keep the streets, sidewalks, and trails in the Anchorage Bowl Area maintained.” At some point Anchorage may have to consider a shift in priorities and infrastructure investment away from the most expensive and most subsidized form of transportation to more efficient ones.