Anchorage Assembly to consider final $120,000 payment on Eagle River Town Center loan

The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled Tuesday, Nov. 17, to consider a $120,000 appropriation that would make the final payment on a loan between two city funds for the Eagle River Town Center.

The resolution would move the money from the Real Estate Services Division's 2026 operating budget to the city's general capital projects fund. The administration memo puts this year's payment at $96,010 in principal and $23,990 in interest. The 20-year loan was activated in June 2009 and has been paid off through rent from municipal agencies in the building.

Also on the Nov. 17 agenda is a $610,711 state grant for AnchorRIDES senior transportation. The Assembly will also consider $456,000 from the Anchorage Golf Course's capital reserve to replace two rooftop HVAC units, a makeup air unit and exhaust fans, work planned alongside the course's roof replacement. A third item would spend $1.5 million from the Anchorage Police Department's IT Systems Special Tax Levy Fund on technology maintenance.

The Assembly will reopen a public hearing on a mayor's office ordinance that would give a 10-year property tax break for the residential portions of new or rehabilitated mixed-use buildings with at least four new units. The ordinance says it aims to address Anchorage's housing shortage. Units would have to sell at or below the average assessed value of a single-family home, and short-term rentals and properties already getting other tax exemptions would not qualify. A revised version from Assembly Member Erin Baldwin Day would also let commercial property owners who add four or more rental units qualify. Applications would close Aug. 31, 2031.

Carried over from Nov. 4 is a proposal from Eagle River-Chugiak Assembly Members Donald Handeland and Jared Goecker that would require municipal candidates to file a nominating petition with their declaration of candidacy. Mayor and school board candidates would need 250 voter signatures and Assembly candidates 50, with signers living in the candidate's district. East Anchorage Assembly Member Yarrow Silvers submitted a letter from the Northeast Community Council board opposing the change.

Silvers and Assembly Member Janice Park are sponsoring an ordinance that would broaden bans on unsafe conduct and raise public intoxication from a class B to a class A misdemeanor. It would set mandatory minimum penalties, graduated by prior convictions, for repeat public intoxication and for municipal fifth-degree controlled-substance cases. Courts could order substance use assessments and treatment, and eligible offenders who finish treatment could get reduced sentences and fines. North Anchorage Assembly Member Sydney Scout filed three research papers on mandatory minimums, along with a reference to a September 2026 report on Anchorage Police Department use of force.

The meeting begins at 5 pm at the Loussac Library. Residents can testify in person or in writing at muni.org/testimony. Phone testimony requires signing up there by 5 pm Nov. 16.