Anchorage Assembly takes up Chugiak senior housing lease extension to 2094

The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday, Oct. 6, will take up an ordinance that would extend a Chugiak senior group's below-market lease of city land to 2094 and lift a construction deadline that would otherwise end the lease this month. A public hearing is set for Oct. 20.

Chugiak Senior Citizens, Inc., a nonprofit serving people 60 and older in Chugiak, Eagle River and Eklutna, leases the city land next to the Chugiak-Eagle River Senior Center. It plans to build about 60 units there with Q2 Partners LLC, in two phases of roughly 30 units each. The first phase would serve seniors, and the ordinance would let the second include renters of any age. A memo on the proposal envisions 80% of the units for households earning 60% or less of the area median income and 20% at market rate.

The partners plan to seek tax-credit funding through the Alaska Housing Finance Corporation's Greater Opportunities for Affordable Living program, which requires a ground lease running 50 years past completion. The program is competitive, and a memo from Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says it will "likely take more than one attempt to obtain funding." The city says Q2 built the municipality's most recent new project financed with federal low-income housing tax credits.

The lease now runs through Oct. 31, 2076, but it ends Oct. 31, 2026, if construction isn't substantially complete by then. A 2005 ordinance authorized the city to negotiate the lease for low-income senior housing, and this would be the fifth extension. The group already operates 42 units in Chugiak, according to the housing corporation's statewide list of independent-living housing.

The ordinance would replace the single construction deadline with five checkpoints, and missing one could send the land back to the city:

• Financing by Dec. 31, 2028.

• Platting, land use approvals and a resolution to extend water service by the end of 2030.

• Permits and the start of construction by the end of 2032.

• Phase one complete, with a certificate of occupancy, by the end of 2034.

• Phase two complete the same way by the end of 2044, when the 50-year lease term begins.

The administration recommends approval. Its memo ties the project to the mayor's "10,000 Homes in 10 Years" strategy and lists no immediate economic impact. Residents can comment at www.muni.org/testimony or testify at the Oct. 20 hearing.