Anchorage Assembly keeps a non-binding housing resolution moving

The Anchorage Assembly voted 7 to 4 on Tuesday to keep a housing resolution moving, turning down a motion to push it off to Sept. 15.

The resolution asks the administration to put housing first when it sells or otherwise disposes of city land that has already been judged suitable for homes.

Assembly Member Yarrow Silvers moved to postpone it. She said she wanted a work session first, to talk through "some of the unintended consequences."

Assembly Member Erin Baldwin Day said the resolution obligates nobody. It is, she said, "a very strongly worded suggestion." Land is one of the few levers the Assembly has over what housing costs in Anchorage, she said, and there is a finite amount of it. The Assembly had already spent two hours on housing policy at a work session Friday.

One speaker told members that housing deals run on timing, and that a missed window may not come around again for a long while.