Anchorage ordinance would create Chugach park access advisory board

Anchorage residents who pay into the Chugach State Park Access Service Area would gain seats on a board that reviews trailhead, parking, and access road projects, under an ordinance before the Anchorage Assembly. The board would recommend priorities to the administration and the Assembly.

Assembly Chair Anna Brawley and Vice Chair Daniel Volland submitted the ordinance for reading on July 7. It would create an advisory board of seven voting members appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Assembly. The board would review the service area's capital improvement program and budget every year. It would also comment on all proposed capital projects, special tax levies, and service contracts before the Assembly acts. The ordinance would take effect immediately upon passage and approval.

Voters created the service area at the April 4, 2023, municipal election, when Proposition 6 passed with 59.68% of the vote on the question. The service area covers the Anchorage Bowl and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, and it has no independent board of supervisors. Municipal departments run its work directly. According to the sponsors' memorandum, the municipality still has no adopted prioritized project list beyond the items proposed for the 2026 ballot.

Four of the seven seats would go to service area residents, two from the Anchorage Roads and Drainage Service Area and two from limited or rural road service areas. The other three would go to members with expertise in trail design, in transportation or civil engineering, and in outdoor recreation on Chugach State Park or other Alaska public lands. The superintendent of Chugach State Park, or a designee, would sit as an ex officio member.

The ordinance would also strike an existing requirement from municipal code. That provision directs the municipality to enter cooperative agreements with all parties when a project falls within a service area providing roads or drainage services, or involves roads owned by the State of Alaska. The measure would keep the requirement to consult the board of supervisors for the affected limited road service area or rural road service area before a project enters a capital improvement program and budget, and again before construction proceeds. Those boards could make recommendations to the new board by resolution, including on project prioritization.

The stakes fall on two groups the ordinance names only indirectly. Property owners inside the service area fund the capital improvements through the taxes voters authorized. The selection, scope, and timing of roadway, parking, trailhead, and trail projects determine what they get for that money. Trail, civil engineering, and outdoor recreation interests would gain formal representation through the three expertise seats.

An earlier approach stalled