Anchorage planners ask to delay Tudor interchange, 4th Avenue and Title 21 hearings

Anchorage's Planning Department has asked the Planning and Zoning Commission to postpone three public hearings set for Monday, Nov. 9. Reviews of the Seward Highway and Tudor Road interchange and of 4th Avenue signal upgrades would move to Dec. 7. An ordinance to streamline reviews under Title 21, the city's land use regulations, would move to Dec. 14.

The interchange review would slip for a second time. The state transportation department's design study report for rebuilding the interchange was set for a Nov. 2 hearing, but Current Planning Manager Elizabeth Appleby asked to move it to Nov. 9. Now Senior Planner Francis McLaughlin wrote that the department "needs additional time to analyze the application and make recommendations to Commission." The project covers the highway's entrance and exit ramps and Tudor Road from MacInnes Street to Old Seward Highway. In April the commission accepted the state's concept for the redesign, which adds protected bike and pedestrian paths. Construction is expected to begin in summer 2030.

The state's proposal to upgrade traffic signals and lighting on 4th Avenue between Cordova and Ingra streets, in the Downtown and Fairview community council areas, would also move to Dec. 7. Long-Range Planning Division Manager Daniel Mckenna-Foster cited low staffing levels and the need for more time to review and prepare the case. He gave the same reasons to move a separate Title 21 cleanup ordinance from Nov. 2 to Dec. 14.

On the streamlining ordinance, Mckenna-Foster wants more feedback from Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport and the municipality's Survey Division before the commission sends its recommendation to the Anchorage Assembly.

The commission still meets Nov. 9 at 6:30 pm at the Z.J. Loussac Library, where a Chugiak rezoning request also is set for a hearing.