Anchorage's planning director could approve bigger encroachments alone

Anchorage's planning director could soon approve setback encroachments three times larger than the code now allows, without a public hearing.

The Planning Department wants to raise the threshold for what it calls a minor modification from 5 percent to 15. Variances above that line go to a noticed hearing where neighbors can show up and testify. Minor modifications do not. What changes is not the standard but who decides.

The department landed on 15 percent after reviewing every zoning variance filed in Anchorage over the past decade. At 15 percent, 10 of those cases could have been handled by the director alone. At 10 percent, three. At 20 percent, 16.

An earlier version of the ordinance set the figure at 10 percent, and that is still the number in the draft the Planning and Zoning Commission takes up at a public hearing Sept. 21.

The ordinance would also loosen what counts as an extraordinary circumstance justifying a variance, adding unusual lot shapes and surveying errors to what is now a list of physical conditions. It clarifies another criterion to address the Americans with Disabilities Act. All eight standards would still have to be met, and the code still requires that a minor modification cause no significant harm to surrounding property owners.

The Zoning Board of Examiners and Appeals reviewed the draft Sept. 10, an item continued twice since June. Its recommendation goes to the commission, and the Assembly decides.