Anchorage Assembly to take up transfer of steep Christensen Drive parcel to street crews

The Anchorage Assembly is scheduled to take up first reading Tuesday, Oct. 6, of an ordinance that would hand a steep, unbuildable sliver of downtown land on Christensen Drive to the city's Street Maintenance Section, clearing the way for utility easements the city says have been left unfinished since an older street project. First reading is the formal introduction; the Assembly has set the public hearing, when residents can testify and members can vote, for Oct. 20. Utility easements are legal rights that let utility lines cross or sit on a property.

The parcel is a triangle a little under a quarter-acre, north of Christensen Drive and east of the H Street Stairs. Right-of-way borders all three sides. A third of it lies under the roadway and sidewalk. The rest slopes steeply to the north. City records place it in seismic zone 5, rated very high for ground failure susceptibility, and say it is not suited for development.

The ordinance would withdraw the land from the Heritage Land Bank, the city agency that holds municipal land not committed to a public use, place it in the Real Estate Services general inventory and assign management to the Street Maintenance Section. The land would stay in use for street, walkway, drainage, utility and public access.

The federal Bureau of Land Management deeded the lot to the city in 1963 for municipal purposes only. In 2015, a city review found only a neighboring owner would realistically buy it. The bureau later lifted the municipal-use restriction. No neighbor showed interest, and no sale moved forward. The Heritage Land Bank 2024 Work Plan had flagged the parcel for a possible permit to Street Maintenance tied to easements left unfinished from the older street project.

The ordinance carries a reversion clause. If the land is not used as intended, or is deemed surplus, it returns to the land bank. The Right-of-Way Section and the Public Works Department backed the transfer during agency review. Other agencies offered no comment or no objection. The Heritage Land Bank Advisory Commission held a public hearing and recommended the transfer on Aug. 20.

The transfer was not listed in the land bank's 2026 work program, so the ordinance also amends that plan.