Anchorage Assembly approves Tozier Tract land swap with nonbinding housing targets

The Anchorage Assembly voted 12-0 on Oct. 6 to trade the city's Tozier Tract on Tudor Road to the state for Block 102 downtown, attaching housing targets that are not binding.

The vote settles a swap Alaska News reported Sept. 24. The Tozier Tract covers about 9.6 acres near the U-Med district. Block 102 is four downtown parking lots totaling about 1.6 acres owned by the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation, according to a city memo. The corporation is to lead housing on the Tozier site, and the city takes Block 102 for multifamily housing.

The ordinance states the Assembly's intent: at least 15 dwelling units per gross acre, at least 70% of each site for housing, mixed use or services, and every effort to break ground on both sites within three years of the exchange.

Assembly members Erin Baldwin Day and Sydney Scout wrote the version that passed. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's earlier version had dropped two conditions from the original: at least 70% housing on either site and at least eight units per acre. The memo said those were meant to keep the Tozier Tract from becoming low-density single-family homes or all commercial.

Baldwin Day said that, as she understood it, the corporation did not want conditions imposed on it, and that the sponsors were told a reversionary clause, which can return land to its former owner, would be a dealbreaker. An administration official confirmed the targets section only "recommends."

"Public land is one of the ways that we can actually guarantee or at least support the development of affordable and attainable housing in Anchorage," Baldwin Day said.

The official said Block 102 has water, sewer and road access and better-known soils. The city forecasts more than 100 units there, though a development assessment is not finished. The memo puts the appraisals at about $4.1 million for the Tozier Tract and $5.2 million for Block 102.

LaFrance said the city is "getting the better deal in terms of the market value of the transaction" and that the exchange counts toward her 10,000-home goal.

The lone testifier, Linda Sharp of Midtown, opposed trading the Tudor Road tract, which she said covers about five acres and could hold about 40 units, for a downtown acre she understood would hold about eight. Assembly member Kameron Perez-Verdia worried that late requirements could hinder development. Chair Anna Brawley called the version the right balance.

A Sept. 24 letter from the corporation's chief executive, Bryan D. Butcher, called the exchange prospective, with soil and market studies due this month and a city-led rezoning still needed. Tozier outcomes "could include single-family and multi-family housing development as well as commercial opportunities," he wrote. No closing date for the exchange was given; the three-year construction target begins when it closes.