Anchorage's own campground isn't allowed under its park zoning

Anchorage runs an 84-site campground at Centennial Park and sells tree plugs at the Russian Jack greenhouse. Neither is actually allowed under the city's park zoning.

A draft ordinance before the Planning and Zoning Commission on Monday would fix that, adding camper parks to the list of uses that can be approved case by case in the Parks and Recreation district, and folding greenhouses, child care programming and temporary sales of products grown on site into the uses allowed in parks and open areas.

The gap surfaced by accident. The commission recommended rezoning Anchorage Bowl parks to PR in December, and the Assembly approved it in June. Somewhere in between, planning staff realized the campground and the greenhouse operations would have been left nonconforming under the new zoning — so they pulled those two parks out of the package. Changing the use rules would let staff finish the job and bring the remaining parks over.

One neighborhood group pushed back along the way. The Rabbit Creek Community Council objected that an earlier draft's reference to "child care" could be read as allowing someone to build a child care facility on park land. Staff narrowed it to "child care programming," and the council accepted the change.

Senior Planner Luke Bertram recommends approval in his memo to the commission.

The hearing is at 6:30 pm Monday at the Z.J. Loussac Library. Residents can testify in person or by phone, three minutes each, and written comments are taken until the Friday before. The commission only makes a recommendation; the Assembly decides.