Denali Street sidewalk money shifts to Fairview's Hyder pedestrian boulevard

The Denali Street non-motorized project came off Anchorage's near-term list on Wednesday, July 15, and about $3.46 million moved with it to the Hyder Pedestrian Boulevard in Fairview.

The Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions Policy Committee, meeting in special session, approved a revised non-motorized project list for the 2052 Metropolitan Transportation Plan. The committee removed Line 34, Denali Street from roughly Eagle Street to East Fireweed Lane, except for the Eagle Street segment. Staff told the committee the $3.46 million would be added to $16.5 million already programmed to incorporate the Hyder Planning and Environmental Linkages project. All four phases of the Hyder Pedestrian Boulevard are estimated at about $33.5 million in the Policy Committee's 2052 plan memorandum.

Fairview planning materials describe Hyder Street as a corridor that today prioritizes vehicle throughput and could become a neighborhood-scaled pedestrian boulevard linking the Chester Creek and Ship Creek greenbelts. The Fairview Community Council has advocated for that conversion.

AMATS non-motorized planning documents list it as a non-motorized core arterial, and reconstruction as a complete street from Fireweed Lane to Tudor Road is ranked a high priority. Midtown commenters on the 2050 plan called the street poorly designed for pedestrians and bicyclists. Staff said the removed stretch is reflected on the Complete Streets table from Fireweed Lane to Tudor Road, recommended keeping the Eagle Street piece as a neighborhood greenway, and said the section between Tudor Road and International Airport Road would need other funding sources.

Rhiannon Brown of AMATS briefed the committee on the list. Assembly Member Erin Baldwin Day then brought her own substitute for part of it, saying she was concerned the committee was removing projects at the bottom of the list wholesale to free up about $16 million for Hyder. She said she had gone through the table and built an alternative that kept most of them. Committee discussion turned to whether the reshuffle would delay sidewalks in Fairview, with members seeking assurance the neighborhood would still get them in the same timeframe. The Fairview non-motorized street network study, Line 50, moved from long-term to short-term so it lines up with other Fairview work.

Baldwin Day moved the revised list and amended her motion to include staff recommendations drawn from a meeting with the Fairview Community Council. Kent Kohlhase, deputy chief of staff in the mayor's office, seconded. The motion passed without objection. Lindsey Hajduk, who works in community engagement and external affairs at NeighborWorks Alaska, told the committee during public comment that the Hyder projects are "part of this long-term vision the community has been working for."

A 40th Avenue enhanced shared roadway and a $1 million Hartville Road item shifted from short-term to long-term. A duplicative $5.5 million Gambell and Ingra pedestrian item was removed. The 5th and 6th Avenue project termini were amended from I Street to Reeve Boulevard to L Street to Airport Heights.

Baldwin Day also proposed dropping the Glenn Highway non-motorized overhead crossing to the Tikahtnu commercial center from long-term to illustrative status, citing technical and logistical challenges and an existing pedestrian crossing up the highway at Muldoon. Kohlhase asked how much benefit there is in building a $10 million crosswalk over a divided highway, noting one existing overcrossing south of Brayton had its roof blown off. He said it would not change his vote.

The project lists are not final. AMATS Executive Director Aaron Jongenelen told the committee the draft plan returns for review before it is posted for public comment, and again afterward for responses and final approval.