Anchorage trails plan keeps Muldoon trail but drops JBER from its name

Anchorage's revised Recreational Trails Plan keeps the proposed Muldoon Perimeter Trail, but in a softened form. After Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson asked planners to delete the project, they removed JBER from its title and now show the route as a hatched corridor rather than a drawn alignment.

JBER asked planners to remove the trail during the plan's public comment period, which ran from Jan. 28 to March 31, citing incompatibility with the military mission. The base said that stretch of installation border is "mostly unsecured, easily accessible by the public, and has a high incidence of trespassing resulting in delayed and cancelled training opportunities impacting Soldier readiness."

The plan states the trail was kept "due to substantial public support received and the potential for a trail in this location to connect existing park land through an underserved neighborhood," while "acknowledging lack of landowner support." Planners wrote that keeping the concept allows alternatives to be explored that are more amenable to JBER's mission.

The idea is old. The plan says a connection along the military-civilian boundary "has been documented in plans since 1979 and continually supported by the community." The 2013 East Anchorage District Plan recorded the same concept and flagged potential conflicts with live military training safety zones.

Listed as Project 37, the trail would provide continuous north-south access between Muldoon neighborhoods, Far North Bicentennial Park and Chugach State Park. Planners rank it high priority, long timeframe, in the plan's top cost tier. Far North Bicentennial Park draws an estimated 1,000,000 visitors a year. The plan names the voter-approved Chugach State Park Access Service Area as one possible funding mechanism.

The plan, funded through the 2023-2026 Transportation Improvement Program and led by Anchorage Parks and Recreation with AMATS, returned to the Technical Advisory Committee and Policy Committee in July, prompting an Aug. 12 work session and further revisions. No new maps or figures were updated in this draft, which planners attributed to time and budget constraints; a fully accessible version with updated maps may follow if the plan wins approval.

The AMATS Technical Advisory Committee is scheduled to take up the plan Thursday. "AMATS staff recommends that the Technical Advisory Committee review and recommend to the Policy Committee approval of the Recreational Trails Plan," AMATS Non-Motorized Coordinator Emily Weiser wrote in a memorandum. Additional project funding remains pending a final signature on an updated agreement with the state transportation department.