Anchorage planners say 30-foot R-1 height cap would undermine housing overlay

Anchorage planners told the Assembly on Tuesday that a 30-foot height cap for R-1 zones inside the proposed Missing Middle Housing Opportunity Overlay would make the overlay unworkable for the multifamily and missing-middle housing it is intended to enable.

The Planning Department memo, written by Long-range Planning Manager Daniel McKenna-Foster and addressed to Planning Director Mélisa R. K. Babb, recommends that building heights remain uniform at 40 feet across the entire overlay. McKenna-Foster wrote that the lower R-1 limit "undermines the function and effectiveness of the overlay."

The memo cites recent examples of height limits affecting projects. Modern three-story multifamily buildings routinely exceed 35 feet because of HVAC systems, structural requirements, and market preferences. That constraint already forced Cook Inlet Housing into a separate rezone process for a recent project that came in slightly above the 35-foot maximum in an R-3 zone. A private homeowner faced the same obstacle when a three-story home triggered a site plan review.

McKenna-Foster wrote that "modern practices and feedback from local builders has shown that it is difficult to build a modern three-story multifamily building under 35' due to changes in interstitial space requirements, building materials, construction techniques, and market preferences."

The MMHOP as proposed by Assembly sponsors sets a 40-foot limit everywhere in the overlay except where the underlying zone is R-1, where the cap would stay at 30 feet. Sponsors framed that carve-out as a response to concerns raised during the earlier Transit-Supportive Development Overlay process about shadows in single-family neighborhoods. Assembly Member Erin Baldwin Day said at a June 17 worksession that the lower R-1 limit was "a response to that concern to say, okay, in, in R-1, we will maintain the height as is."

Planners push back on that logic. The memo notes that some R-1 areas along transit corridors have carried the same zoning since the 1950s and no longer reflect current conditions or infrastructure. Allowing more people to locate on existing infrastructure, the memo argues, reduces long-term capital costs for the community. The memo also notes that since the TSDO was paused, the Planning Department has received feedback from community members opposing zoning reforms and from those supporting reforms to allow housing projects that could have been completed under the overlay. Planners further recommend that any MMHOP action be aligned with the Comprehensive Plan and that any necessary plan amendments be considered.

McKenna-Foster wrote that "Planning recommends building heights remain uniform and there be no special rules for certain underlaid areas, as this undermines the function and effectiveness of the overlay."