A Muldoon pot shop divides the Assembly, with a former legislator and the chair for it and a council member against

A marijuana store proposed inside a working tire and auto glass shop on Muldoon Road has drawn letters and testimony on both sides at the Anchorage Assembly — support from a former state legislator and the Assembly's own chair, opposition from a community council board member. The hearing didn't finish: eleven people testified on Aug. 4 before the Assembly adjourned near 11:15 p.m. and carried the matter to Tuesday, when testimony resumes.

The application is from Baltazar Holdings, doing business as Sensimilla, for a 1,508-square-foot store inside the existing shop at 1431 Muldoon Road. The owner, Baltazar Arias, has run Baltazar's Tire Shop in Anchorage for 25 years and employs more than a dozen people there.

David Weber, a Northeast Community Council board member, made the case against the store. In an email to Assembly members and in testimony, he described a congested lot with fewer than 10 parking spaces shared with the active tire shop and car wash, near the Debarr and Muldoon intersection, which he said carries one of the city's highest traffic fatality rates. The store, he noted, would be the third marijuana retailer on Muldoon Road and the sixth in or near Northeast Anchorage. He also argued the separation distances tied to a retailer here could limit where the area can later place childcare centers or recreation facilities. "I respectfully request that you REJECT the request for the special land use permit in its current form," he wrote.

Support came from Les Gara, a Democrat who represented an Anchorage House district from 2003 to 2018, and who said he has known Arias for about a decade. Gara asked the Assembly to approve the license on the same terms other Anchorage dispensaries have received, and said he was writing in part because Arias "might not have all the polished public presentation skills as some other Anchorage residents who learned English as their first language." He was careful to note the limits of his own case: "I hope the Assembly will approve his application as long as it falls within the same rules that have resulted in license approvals for similar businesses," he wrote, adding that whether it meets each requirement "is something Assembly members know better than I do."

Assembly Chair Anna Brawley also spoke in favor, calling Arias "a very ethical person." She said the community council had originally backed the business before reversing course after Arias lost investors, and that planning review confirmed the store meets the required distance from nearby Chanshtnu-Muldoon Park. "I recommend you guys support his business," she said.

On that distance question — which Alaska News reported on earlier, turning on how Anchorage and the state each define a protected site — the store clears the separation requirement under city rules, because the distance to a playground is measured from the equipment rather than a property line. The Anchorage Planning Department recommended approval subject to conditions, including a code-compliant parking plan and odor control keeping marijuana undetectable at the lot line. Reviewing agencies raised no objection, and the department logged two comments in opposition after mailing 539 hearing notices.

The concern has a broader echo on the Assembly. At its July 21 meeting, member George Martinez introduced a resolution asking the administration to review where cannabis businesses may locate. "There are a lot of folks there who feel like our part of the community has been targeted more than other parts," he said.

The store proposes hours of 8 a.m. to midnight and would close to the public overnight. The Assembly takes the matter up again Tuesday.