Planners say Anchorage's capital budget isn't strongly tied to its growth plan

The Anchorage Planning and Zoning Commission will review Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's proposed capital budget at a work session Monday, and the city's own Planning Department is telling commissioners that the spending doesn't appear strongly tied to the city's growth plans.

The finding is in a Planning Department memo on the $136 million 2027 capital budget, which pays for roads, buildings and other long-term projects, and the $876 million six-year capital program.

The memo also tracks where growth has actually gone. Since the city adopted the Anchorage 2040 Land Use Plan in 2017, as an update to its comprehensive plan for the Anchorage Bowl, the memo says, 1% of Anchorage Bowl development has landed in areas the plan marked for significant growth, 32% in moderate-growth areas and 47% in little-growth areas.

Long-Range Planning Manager Daniel McKenna-Foster wrote the memo. It says the Comprehensive Plan calls for aligning city infrastructure spending with the plan, but "there does not appear to be a strong connection" between adopted plans and capital budgeting. The plan also gives no clear guidance on dividing budgets by area, priority or department, the memo says.

"Anchorage does have a lot of plans. We have a lot of plans that have never been updated," McKenna-Foster told the commission in September.

Project Management and Engineering, which handles roads, is budgeted for about 60% of bond funding from 2027 through 2032. The 2027 budget includes $87.95 million in bond funding, municipal budget documents show, and projects the Assembly approves go to voters as a bond package in the April 2027 election.

The memo weighs in on specific projects. The $6.7 million Norann Subdivision reconstruction would rebuild 57th and 58th avenues in an area zoned mostly R-1, for single-family homes, and mapped for low density, and planners suggest updating the land use plan so more residents could take advantage of the new infrastructure. The Academy Drive and Vanguard Drive project, which traces to a 2011 design study, carries a $750,000 local match for about $13 million in federal money programmed after 2030. Planners recommend removing it or evaluating whether it still has a clear purpose.

Overall, the department recommends aligning capital spending with the Comprehensive Plan's focus on centers and corridors, or updating the plan if practical spending does not match it.

Staff are asking the commission to forward recommendations to the Assembly, which holds its first public hearing on the 2027 budgets Tuesday and is scheduled to vote on the final budget Nov. 17.