Assembly Report for March 13, 2007

CONSERVATIVES RAM KNIK ARM CROSSING THROUGH ASSEMBLY: After hearing another two hours of public testimony Tuesday night, assembly conservatives cut off further discussions and voted 8-2 to recommend that the Knik Arm Project be added to the city’s long range transportation plan. With Pamela Jennings absent, only Janice Shamberg and Allan Tesche voted against the $600M project proponents say will not burden local taxpayers and will open up the neighboring Matanuska Susitna Borough for residential and commercial development.

Although public testimony Tuesday night was again overwhelmingly against the project, KABATA’s staff touted a glossy opinion survey procured from pollster David Dittman which favored construction of the bridge. Staff also reported that two private firms have now offered to design, build, and operate the bridge. An evaluation of those proposals is currently underway to identify a single firm for the project.

Assembly action came almost immediately after members tinkered with details of the resolution, leaving no time for assembly discussion before Assembly chair Dan Sullivan shut off debate, forced a vote on the measure and abruptly ended the meeting. In sharp contrast to its brief discussion of this $600M bridge project, members earlier spent much more time picking through the financial details of buying several hundred folding chairs for the Sullivan Area.. Assembly conservatives who so bitterly fought extension of the coastal trail into south Anchorage and earlier railed on use of eminent domain (condemnation) for acquisition of land for residential facilities seemed indifferent to 15 families on Government Hill who will lose there homes to the project and see their neighborhood forever divided by a ribbon of concrete, steel, and commercial traffic.

Conditions recommended by Mayor Begich and brokered with assembly members by Dan Coffey include completion of all studies required for the project including air quality, a financial analysis, final EIS; prohibition on use of further state or local funds on the project; mitigation measures for affected neighborhoods including Government Hill, completion of project funding; compliance with local planning ordinances; and expedited work on the Gambell-Ingra highway connection to mitigate downtown traffic impacts.

The Assembly’s recommendation goes now to the five member Anchorage metropolitan area transportation planning organization which is expected to give its final approval to the project.

UNANIMOUS SUPPORT FOR GOV. PALIN’S GASLINE PROPOSAL: All members voted Tuesday to support legislation proposed by Gov. Sarah Palin to induce qualified firms to build an Alaska gas line. The Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AIGA) would authorize contribution of up to $500M by the state Alaska toward the cost of obtaining necessary permits and regulatory approvals, promulgation of regulations that provide predictability in royalty value and the exercise of the state’s right to receive its royalty share in kind or in cash, production tax incentives, and appointment of state pipeline coordinator to facilitate prompt state permitting are likely to induce qualified firms to build an Alaska Gas Pipeline. In return, the firm selected would provide a clear and definite timetable for construction of a gas pipeline, multiple take points in Alaska to assure the availability of natural gas for meet Alaska’s needs and for the state’s future development, and "distance-sensitive" rates" for in state delivery of gas. in Alaska ;and establishment of a local project headquarters and hiring offices in Alaska to hire qualified Alaskans to construct the gas pipeline and related facilities. AIGA is now before the legislature for action.

COFFEY OUT CAMPAIGNING; ASSEMBLY DELAYS ACTION ON TUDOR ROAD TRAFFIC STUDY TO LET HIM READ HIS PACKET: Assembly action on a Tudor Road Corridor Study, including notorious Lake Otis & Tudor intersection (was delayed until April 10th to accommodate Midtown Assembly member Dan Coffey who told members he was out campaigning for re election and hasn’t had time to read the study. The Lake Otis & Tudor bottleneck is located in his Midtown Assembly district; and at Coffey’s urging last year, was dumped from the priority list of the city’s long range transportation plan.

PROPOSAL TO REPEAL THE 20TH CENTURY SENT TO TITLE 21 COMMITTEE: Without comment on its merits, Assembly members sent Ken Stout’s bizarre "Residential Land Use Policy Resolution" (AR 2007-48) to its Title 21 Committee for further study and modification. The Stout resolution would require that zoning ordinances in urban areas to encourage single family ownership on single family lots with densities of no more than 5-7 units per acre. In rural areas, zoning ordinances should allow only larger lots for what Stout calls "the rural lifestyle." Higher densities or multifamily structures such as duplexes, fourplexes, or apartment buildings would be allowed only by neighborhood vote.

The resolution would effectively reverse the evolution of land use planning over the past century and the Anchorage 2020 Plan by ignoring the traditional use of urban lands for multifamily dwellings and the growing scarcity of land in the Anchorage bowl. The goal of the lifestyle of a gentlemen-farmer is realistic only in the wealthiest and most exclusive suburban areas of the country. If this bucolic dream was ever realistic for people of lesser means, it disappeared almost a century ago along with the availability of relatively cheap large lots in urban areas.