Anchorage would drop the 15-foot planting buffer for triplexes and fourplexes

Builders of three- and four-unit homes in Anchorage, along with unit lots in unit-lot subdivisions, would no longer have to install landscaping buffers along their property lines under an ordinance the Assembly takes up Sept. 1, with a public hearing set for Oct. 6.

Municipal code requires a planting bed averaging 15 feet wide and never narrower than 10, with two trees and six shrubs for every 20 feet of property line, at least half the trees coniferous.

Current code requires site perimeter landscaping on some three- and four-dwelling-unit lots, but not on single-family or duplex lots. The Planning Department offers a hypothetical: a multifamily lot next to a neighborhood commercial one must provide that buffer, at design, planting and maintenance costs a duplex on the same lot would not carry.

The Anchorage Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-0 on July 6 to recommend approval to the Assembly. No one testified at the public hearing. Chair Spinelli said he agreed with staff that the existing wording about being part of a subdivision was confusing. The commission adopted its resolution Aug. 3.

Senior Planner Luke Bertram, who prepared the case, said the amendment "streamlines development of 3- and 4-dwelling unit lots, cuts down on required landscaping design and installation costs."

Minimum tree requirements for new residential development still apply, and the ordinance makes no change to how that rule treats lots platted before Jan. 1, 2014. Nine reviewing agencies, among them Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities, and Watershed Management Services, filed no comment or no objection.

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration recommends approval, citing the 10,000 Homes in 10 Years strategy. A separate, larger missing middle proposal, an opt-in overlay for transit corridors, gets a public hearing Sept. 15.