Assembly Report for December 11, 2007

TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING, WE NOW HAVE A DOWNTOWN PLAN: The assembly amended and then unanimously approved on Tuesday night a new comprehensive plan (AO 2007-116) for the Downtown area of Anchorage, after two years of work by downtown groups, municipal staff, contract planners and the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission. Replacing an earlier downtown plan adopted twenty years ago, the new plan sets out goals and development standards for new "mixed use" commercial and residential areas, downtown housing, and pedestrian amenities. Amendments adopted by Assembly members included one offered by Dan Coffey to "adjust" timing of traffic speeds on downtown streets to "approximately 25 mph". Another amendment offered by Dick Traini and Allan Tesche requires owners of downtown parking lots to maintain local offices for handling complaints and customer service and to improve sidewalk snow removal.

TRAINI’S FIREWORK’S ORDINANCE REJECTED: By a vote of 6-5, the Assembly rejected Assemblyman Dick Traini’s substitute version of an ordinance relaxing the city’s ban on fireworks for a limited time period on New Year’s eve. The modified version of Traini’s ordinance would have allowed "Class C" fireworks such as sparklers and Roman Candles, but not "mines, shells, and firecrackers" for a 6 hour period beginning at 7:00 p.m. on New Year’s eve and imposed geographic restrictions on those uses.

A NEW HOTEL AT ALASKA PACIFIC UNIVERSITY: A proposal backed by Mayor Begich to amend the zoning ordinance allow hotels in property zoned for "Public Lands and Institutions"(PLI) rolled through the Assemly Tuesday night. Although the ordinance would affect all property zoned PLI throughout Anchorage, the code change was requested by Alaska Pacific University in order to allow construction of a new three story hotel on property the university owns on its Anchorage campus in the summer of 2008. Under the ordinance proposed by the Mayor and recommended by the Planning and Zoning commission, hotels would be allowed in the PLI only as conditional uses and, if associated with a college or university, they must have a "permanent and significant programmatic affiliation with an academic use."

SULLIVAN TAKES A POWDER: ASSEMBLY DELAYS ACTION ON HIS VOTING AND PATRIOT ACT MEASURES: The public will have to wait another week for action on two proposals made by Assemblymember Dan Sullivan until he returns to Anchorage later this week. Sullivan’s proposal to ask voters once again to require expensive run off elections in the mayoral elections and a motion to repeal an old Assembly resolution opposing the notorious Patriot Act will be delayed until the meetings of December 18, 2007.

NEIGHBORHOOD PRISON ORDINANCE PASSED: To allow operation of a halfway house for drug abusers that is patterned after San Francisco’s Delancy St House, the Assembly by a vote of 10-1 voted to change provisions of the city’s zoning ordinance governing halfway houses in zoning districts throughout Anchorage. AO 2007-156 restricts halfway houses to 30 residents, drops prior restrictions which prohibited felons housed in certain business districts and reduced the one mile separation requirement to 1,250 ft for these facilities. By a vote of 6-5, the Assembly also prohibited sex offenders from living in those facilities.

CRITICAL TITLE 21 REWRITE ACTUALLY APPROVED: The Assembly hit a milestone in its never ending project to revise the city’s zoning laws by enacting a critical provisions of the new code dealing with "nonconformities" or grandfatthered uses. Unanimously passed with little debate was AO 2007- 116 which enacted a new Chapter 21.12 regulating the extent to which uses, lots, or structures rendered illegal under the new code will be allowed to continue if they are not expanded, enlarged, changed or abandoned. Particularly in a rapidly growing city such as Anchorage, where land use changes quicker than applicable zoning, how "grandfathered" uses are treated becomes a source of real controversy and litigation. As Title 21 moves slowly through the Assembly, the body is now ready to consider particular land use classifications and determine what is allowed and what is prohibited in those districts. The endgame in this process is, of course, the application of the new regulations to specific parcels of land, such as your home or the business next door.