Anchorage plan would let staff decide some cases that now get public hearings

Anchorage planners want city staff, not public hearings, to decide some land-use requests, from changing conditions written onto subdivision maps to granting exceptions to certain building design rules. The Planning Department has asked the Planning and Zoning Commission to move its first hearing on the draft ordinance from Monday to Dec. 14.

The department wants more time to collect feedback from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and the city's Survey Division, Long-Range Planning Division Manager Daniel Mckenna-Foster wrote in a memo.

The draft, requested by the mayor, ties the changes to the mayor's 10,000 Homes in Ten Years strategy. Letting the planning director handle routine cases would "significantly reduce uncertainty and prevent unnecessary delays," the draft says, while leaving "more significant cases of public interest" to the city's citizen boards. The commission will make a recommendation, and the Anchorage Assembly has the final say.

One change involves plat notes, conditions written onto a recorded subdivision map. Today the Platting Board must hold a public hearing to change or remove one. The draft would hand that decision to the Planning Department, keeping the same approval standards and the right to appeal.

This year's hearings drew little public input. Platting Board minutes record four plat note cases this year with no public testimony, all approved unanimously, and a fifth that drew one person and also passed. In one June case, a homeowner asked to remove 1954 plat notes so they could build an accessory dwelling unit.

The planning director could also grant variances from nine sets of design standards, including height transitions next to neighborhoods, landscaping and fences, residential design standards, and rules for Downtown and Girdwood. Most of those now go to the commission after a public hearing. Variances tied to a conditional use or a major site plan review would stay with the boards, and an applicant who's turned down could still ask for a hearing.

The draft leaves some questions open. Current code requires mailed, published and posted notice for these cases, plus notice to the local community council, and the draft doesn't say how that would work without a hearing date. It lets "any party of interest" appeal the director's decisions, which city code defines to include anyone aggrieved by a decision, but it doesn't mention neighbors.

City officials have previewed the idea. In an Aug. 28 presentation to the Assembly, Community and Economic Development Director Robert Doehl said giving the director more say over variances would save time and money and spare volunteer board members cases that make them ask, "Why did you even bring this to me?"

A separate change would let the director approve bigger setback fixes without a hearing, which the Zoning Board of Examiners and Appeals backed in September.