A mobile home lot near Abbott Road could become business-zoned

A fifth of an acre on Elim Street, currently a mobile home on a private lot, would be rezoned for business under an ordinance the Anchorage Assembly reads Sept. 15, with the companion measure following Sept. 19.

It is one of several lots in the same subdivision moving that direction as the Abbott Road corridor shifts toward denser mixed use. City planner Timothy Robinson noted that this kind of redevelopment can displace people who have lived in mobile homes there for years.

The owners, Eric and Roberta Trevithick, applied for the change. It would move the lot out of low-density residential into general business zoning, which allows commercial uses but also housing and mixed-use projects. The city's long-range land use plan has to be amended first to reclassify the parcel as part of a town center.

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval unanimously in July. Commissioner Scott Pulice said the lot sits far enough back from Abbott Road to serve as "a buffer to what is becoming a denser residential mixed-use area." Anything built there would have to include a planted buffer separating it from the residential lots next door.

The city mailed 168 notices before the hearing. Nobody came forward opposed.