Anchorage will take public comment on Merrill Field's next 20 years Oct. 15

Merrill Field is planning its next 20 years, and part of the work is a noise study. Anchorage will take public comment on both at an open house on Thursday, Oct. 15.

The session runs from 5 to 7 pm at the Z.J. Loussac Library Learning Commons. Attendees can review the planning process and submit input. The open house gathers input; it does not set priorities. Airport management says one stated outcome is identifying three to five viable areas for future hangar development.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires airports to produce a 20-year master plan projecting aviation activity and identifying the capital programs that follow from it. The municipality's 2026 airports budget schedules the work from January 2026 through December 2028 and calls for a five-year development plan alongside the 20-year outlook.

The last update was completed in 2016, when 826 aircraft were based at the field. During the June 2015 to May 2016 reporting period, Merrill Field recorded 119,306 takeoffs and landings.

On Aug. 18 the Anchorage Assembly approved $40,000, almost entirely FAA grant money, to update the airport layout plan, the engineering drawing of the airfield and its planned changes. A separate $913,415 for the master plan's second phase was requested. The airport has signed its master-plan contract with Woolpert Engineering, and survey work had begun by the third quarter of this year.

Airport manager Earl Malpass said the effort is meant to keep Merrill Field working as an economic link for businesses and users and as a lifeline for remote communities reaching goods and health care.

Comments can also go through the project website, merrillfieldmasterplan.com. As of this week the site said open house information would be posted shortly, and documents were still to come.