Assembly to hear plan to trade Tozier Track for downtown parking lots

Anchorage would trade the 9.6-acre former Tozier Track for four downtown parking lots under an ordinance up for an Assembly public hearing Tuesday, Oct. 6. Phone testimony sign-up closes at 5 p.m. the day before. Written comments go to muni.org/testimony.

The Tozier Track, appraised at $4.125 million, would go to the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation for four parcels totaling 1.6 acres on downtown's Block 102, Anchorage Original Townsite, appraised at $5.24 million. Anchorage Community Development Authority Executive Director Mike Robbins told an Aug. 28 Assembly work session no cash would change hands. The authority's work would help cover the difference, and in-kind parking assets may be provided. Anchorage Municipal Code 25.40.025E lets the Heritage Land Bank, which manages municipal land, trade without bidding for land of at least equal appraised value.

The city acquired the Tozier Track in 2021 by trading another land bank parcel to the Alaska Sled Dog Racing Association and paying $2.35 million on top.

Each site must be at least 70% residential, at no fewer than eight units per acre. Assembly member Erin Baldwin Day said redeveloping Block 102 has "long, long been an objective of the Municipality of Anchorage." The Heritage Land Bank Advisory Commission unanimously recommended the exchange Aug. 20.

Written comments oppose the trade. Lauren Hendrix, whose family owns property next to Block 102, urged an open competitive sale instead. Marta Mueller wrote that Block 102 provides Atwood Building employee parking with no replacement plan. Department of Transportation and Public Facilities planners said Tozier housing "would likely preclude or substantially limit" previously planned roads, including a Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue extension. The department's right-of-way section had no objection.

Robbins noted the ordinance approves only the exchange. "There's been no design work done," he said.

The ordinance also amends the land bank's 2026 Annual Work Program, as does a second measure, AO 2026-128, which would shift a roughly quarter-acre Christensen Drive parcel, partly under road and sidewalk and too steep and seismically unstable to develop, to Street Maintenance management. It would revert to the land bank if no longer needed.