Anchorage commission backs rezone to replace two Ivan Drive homes with duplexes

Anchorage's Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday recommended a rezone that would let the owners of two houses on Ivan Drive replace them with duplexes.

No one testified at the hearing. "It meets all three approval criteria and we have not heard any opposition or agency comments," said Commissioner Alma Abaza, who made the motion. City planners had recommended approval. The Assembly makes the final decision, and the draft ordinance doesn't yet list a date for it.

Owners Stacey Dean and Cody Lee, a married couple, want to rezone the two lots, at 2161 and 2171 Ivan Drive south of Dowling Road, from a low-density residential zone to one meant for two-family homes. The current zoning doesn't allow any multi-unit housing on a lot under 13,000 square feet, their application says. The lots are 12,365 and 8,369 square feet.

The application says the building on each lot would be removed after the rezone and that a duplex design "has been permitted." It cites "the immediate need for denser housing in Anchorage" and says permitting and construction would follow immediately, estimated for fall 2026.

Two duplexes would put four homes on just under half an acre, which the owners calculate at 8 units per acre. That's the top of the 5-to-8 range their application cites from the city's Anchorage 2040 Land Use Plan. Because the rezone carries out that plan, it is going through an abbreviated process.

The city water utility and traffic engineers raised no objections, and the Planning Department had received no public comments as of its staff report.