Anchorage Platting Board to weigh Girdwood plat note removal Aug. 5

Proposed plat note removal could expand Girdwood housing site

A vegetation screening requirement written into a Girdwood lot's 2024 plat would come off the books under a Planning Department recommendation, freeing buildable ground for multifamily housing at 116 Kami Circle. The Anchorage Platting Board is scheduled to take up the request Aug. 5.

Owner Rusell Fitzwater petitioned to remove plat note No. 3 from Plat 2024-51, which requires undisturbed vegetation in a 30-foot screening easement. The request targets that plat note alone. The screening easement recorded by separate document in 1981 is a distinct instrument, and the staff analysis does not state that the platting action would extinguish it. Planning staff say current code already covers the frontage. It requires that all vegetation within 25 feet of the Alyeska Highway right-of-way be retained, except to accommodate a driveway, a utility easement or utilities located by permit. The 0.83-acre lot is a narrow wedge zoned gR-4. It is also encumbered by a 20-foot telecommunications and electric easement.

ENSTAR, Chugach Electric and municipal review sections filed no objections. The Planning Department mailed 129 hearing notices July 1. As of the staff report, it had received no public comments. The Girdwood Board of Supervisors did not comment.

If approved, the removal would carry one condition. The owner would record a resolution with the State of Alaska Recorder's Office recognizing the removal and provide proof to the Planning Department.

"No direct access to Alyeska Highway will be allowed. All lots must use Kami Circle for access," Mark Eisenman, the Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities' Anchorage area planner, said in a June 18 letter.

The case lands amid a broader Girdwood argument over open space and housing. Some residents have objected that municipal decisions enabling more development, including multifamily projects, erase natural areas and buffers they wanted preserved in the comprehensive plan. Housing advocates such as Girdwood Inc. have pressed for multifamily lots dedicated to community housing. No opposition to this specific case had been submitted as of the staff report.