A Corner of the Port of Anchorage Is Becoming a Park

A piece of Alaska's most important industrial waterfront is on its way to becoming a park. The Anchorage Platting Board is set to consider splitting a 48-acre parcel at the Don Young Port of Alaska into two tracts — one that stays heavy-industrial, and one set aside for future parkland on Government Hill, which the Assembly has already dedicated for that use.

The site lies east of Ocean Dock Road and north of East Bluff Drive.

Tuesday's action is a step, not the finish. The subdivision draws the boundary; the park half still needs a separate rezone before it can actually become a park. But it moves a long-discussed idea — flagged as potential parkland in both the city's 2040 plan and the Government Hill neighborhood plan — closer to reality.

The plat also surfaces two things worth noting about the site. It sits in the city's highest seismic-hazard zones, with land rated very susceptible to earthquake-induced ground failure — a sobering detail for a waterfront that already worries engineers. And the state has asked that a strip of the new parkland be reserved for the long-contemplated Knik Arm Crossing, the bridge to the Mat-Su that keeps resurfacing in Alaska's transportation plans; the conditions of approval would set aside a "floating" easement for that corridor just in case.

Reviewing agencies raised no objections, attaching the usual easement and right-of-way conditions, and no public comments had come in by the time staff finished its review. The Planning Department recommends approval.