Planners back a permanent permit for Linda's Place shelter as neighbors raise concerns

The Anchorage Planning Department recommends that the Planning and Zoning Commission let Linda's Place, a homeless shelter for up to 150 people at 1911 East 5th Avenue, operate permanently. The commission holds a public hearing on the request Monday, Oct. 19.

The shelter now runs temporarily under emergency orders. Shelters in the general business zone need the commission's approval, through a conditional use permit, to operate permanently. MASH Property Management runs Linda's Place under contract with the Anchorage Health Department. The property owner, CB Homes LLC, filed the application.

The staff analysis finds the shelter meets all nine approval criteria in city code. It counts the shelter's own measures as mitigation: hourly security walks, a phone number nearby businesses can call to report problems, no coming or going after 10 pm and a sobriety rule.

The shelter's rules

The shelter's application lists the same rules but cites security walks every 15 minutes. Its operations plan sets indoor rounds every 30 minutes and outdoor rounds every hour. The plan also gives clients with assigned beds 24-hour access and says people may not be denied service for intoxication.

KS&P Eichholz Trust, which shares the shelter's east property line, wrote that it was told staff would walk the area every 30 minutes. "To this day, we have not seen that part of the contract fulfilled," the trust wrote.

The neighbors

Written comments to the commission cite trespassing, trash and crowding near a marijuana store. The trust said its employees found clients "smoking from glass pipes on Trust Property." It asked for a 6-foot chain-link fence with privacy slats and a locked alley gate. Alex Buzdugan wrote that he picks up trash daily around his business on Unga Street, and he protested the shelter license.

The site has a 6-foot fence on three sides and a 4-foot chain-link fence on the east side, next to the trust. Planning staff addressed the trust's request only in an advisory note suggesting the owner talk with the neighbor about updating that fence.

The city's traffic engineering staff said a building permit for the site still has corrections to address, but it does not object if those are fixed and a site plan is approved.