Anchorage would drop landscaping buffers for three- and four-unit homes

Builders of three- and four-unit homes in Anchorage would no longer have to install landscaping buffers along their property lines under an ordinance the Assembly takes up Sept. 1. The same exemption would apply to unit lots in unit-lot subdivisions.

Municipal code currently requires a planting bed averaging 15 feet wide and never narrower than 10, with two trees and six shrubs for every 20 feet of property line, at least half the trees coniferous. Single-family and duplex lots have never had to provide it.

Senior Planner Luke Bertram, who prepared the case, said the amendment "cuts down on required landscaping design and installation costs."

The Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-0 on July 6 to recommend approval. No one testified at its public hearing. Nine reviewing agencies, including Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility, the state transportation department and Watershed Management Services, filed no comment or no objection.

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration recommends approval, citing the 10,000 Homes in 10 Years strategy.

Minimum tree requirements for new residential development still apply.

The Assembly's public hearing is Oct. 6. A separate and larger missing middle proposal, an opt-in overlay for transit corridors, gets its own hearing Sept. 15.