Assembly report for May 1, 2007

IN THE CROSS HAIRS: OSSIANDER, STARR TAKE AIM AT MAYOR’S PLAN FOR NEW SHOOTING RANGE IN BIRCHWOOD: What started as a low key as a briefing by Anchorage public safety agencies on plans to build an outdoor training facility at Beach Lake Park on Friday work session turned into a donneybrook between the administration and the two assembly members representing the Birchwood-Chugiak area. At issue is a tentative selection of some 54 acres of municipal land within Beach Lake Park for construction of three outdoor shooting ranges and an enclosed "shoot house" that will be used to provide Anchorage police tactical weapons training. The new shooting ranges, together with two other training facilities on Elemendorf Air Force Base and on east Tudor Road have been proposed by a coalition of local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies. Voicing objections of several community councils and local residents, assembly members Debbie Ossiander and Bill Starr riddled the city’s proposal with questions and argument intended to bring out flaws in the public process and to underscore their objections to use of Beach Lake for this purpose. Ossiander questioned whether opposition to the new shooting ranges voiced by local community councils had been adequately considered. Starr, a commercial pilot, raised safety concerns for pilots using the nearby Birchwood airstrip. Police chief Rob Huen defended the city’s proposal by emphasizing the need for adequate live fire training facilities for law enforcement personnel and the lengthy public process the administration will follow, leading to a final site selection decision approved by the assembly.

Somewhat less controversial are related plans by the same agencies to locate another portion of joint training facility on Elemendorf Air force base including a emergency vehicle operator course and facilities for live-burn fire training, including aircraft. A third part of the facility will be located on municipal property at 3500 Tudor Road and will include a gun tower, cars, ships, a variety of buildings, a rubble pile, an outdoor strip mall, and trenches used to simulate urban conditions public safety personnel face.

ASSEMBLY TWEAKS 2007 OPERATING BUDGET, SETS MILL LEVIES AND REDUCES TAXES FOR MOST ANCHORAGE PROPERTY OWNERS: A flurry of action Tuesday night on Mayor Begich’s 2007 operating budget will reduce property taxes for most homeowners in Anchorage this year if promised state revenue sharing to municipalities is approved by the state legislature. On Tuesday night, the Assembly made a few minor revisions to the 2007 budget, set mill levies in the various service areas, and passed AR 2007-109 which will authorize an areawide tax credit to be applied against 2007 taxes if the legislature come through with an additional $22M in revenue sharing this year. To reduce property taxes for 2007, the mayor and assembly plan to apply some $22M Anchorage receive last year last year together with a like amount expected this year, rather than expand new municipal programs and activities. Here are the final numbers: The revised general government operating budget is $374M, an increase of some $5.1M. To support that budget, $218.7M will be collected in property taxes. Most residential property owners will see several hundred dollars of tax relief, depending on valuation.

Surprisingly, Dan Sullivan found a way to vote against AP 2007-109 and the mayor’s tax relief plan for 2007: arguing that the legislature has not yet acted on the 2007 budget, Sullivan urged Assembly members to defer any tax savings coming from revenue sharing approved this year until 2008. Voting with Sullivan was Paul Bauer.

ASSEMBLY HOSES MAYOR’S PLAN TO MOVE ML&P TO MOUNTAIN VIEW : After another week of furiously answering questions from assemblymembers, the administration watched helplessly as the assembly rejected a contract to construct a new headquarters for Municipal Light and Power (ML&P) in the new Glenn Square Mall in Mountain View. The vote was 9-2.

Assembly action came only after Chugiak’s Debbie Ossiander and Eagle River’s Bill Starr dogged the municipal administration during past weeks with dozens of technical questions about the project ranging from detailed cost analyses of alternate sites, square foot calculations, retail space allocations, labor contact issues, required ML&P rate increases to fund the project, and the needs assessments. Before the Assembly was AO 2007-58 which would have allowed ML&P to proceed with a "design-build" contract for construction of a new headquarters building with in the new Glenn Square development near the intersection of the Glenn Highway and Bragaw St in Mountain View. The project was to cost ML&P ratepayers $2M paid through a rate increase ML&P intends to seek from the Regulatory Commission of Alaska. ML&P would own some 66,000 square feet of the top two floors of the three-story building, with a coffee stand, sandwich shop or an insurance agency on the first level.. A meeting space the community could use for evening meetings was planned. The mall's tenants will include Michael’s, Petco, Old Navy, Famous Footwear and Bed, Bath & Beyond, possibly. Best Buy with Target as an anchor store.

In an unsuccessful effort to win votes for the proposal, ML&P offered to reduce the overall size of the project by 11,320 sq. feet to 54,755, lower costs from $24M to $16,860,289 and reserve for future acquisition space for utility customer service. Instead, the Assembly voted down the mayor’s proposal and then unanimously passed a resolution offered by Dan Sullivan which requires competitive source selection on the land acquisition as well as construction of the new facility.

Voting to relocate ML&P to Glenn Square were assembly members Tesche, and Traini. Voting against the project were Assembly members Sullivan, Coffey, Selkregg, Bauer, Birch, Starr, and Ossiander.

ASSEMBLY ACTION BREATHES NEW LIFE INTO CREEKSIDE TOWN CENTER: Approval of Resolution No. AR 2007-104 by the Assembly on Tuesday night allows Cook Inlet Housing Authority (CIHA) to develop some 7.8 acres in the old Alaska Village trailer park in Muldoon for 80 units of affordable housing. A complex financing package negotiated by CIHA with lenders and approved by the Assembly will exempt the project from local property taxes for ten years, with the understanding that after that time, taxes reflecting the enhanced value of the property will be paid, allowing the city to eventually recoup taxes would have otherwise paid during the exemption period. The overall cost of the project is $24.5M; the value of the ten year tax exemption is approximately $500,000. Assembly action follows an earlier declaration by the body that the larger, 60 acre tract which once housed a huge mobile home park is a "deteriorated area" under state law. That action qualified the property for temporary exemptions or deferrals from local property taxes where approved by the local governing body in connection with their redevelopment. Voting against the project was Chugiak’s Debbie Ossiander.