Basher Community Council opposes Anchorage Chugach park-access board ordinance

The Basher Community Council voted 23-0 on Thursday, Sept. 10, to oppose an Anchorage ordinance creating a Chugach State Park access advisory board unless it adds seats for road service areas, the local road districts, and trailhead neighborhoods. Its sponsors plan to continue the Oct. 6 Assembly hearing to Oct. 20.

Anchorage voters created the Chugach State Park Access Service Area, or CASA, on April 4, 2023, to fund bonds supporting park access and to ease the effects of park visitors on surrounding neighborhoods.

Assembly Chair Anna Brawley and Vice Chair Daniel Volland's ordinance would create a seven-member board, appointed by the mayor and confirmed by the Assembly, to advise on capital projects and budgets without spending authority. It would seat experts in trail design, civil engineering and outdoor recreation, four service area residents, two from limited or rural road service areas, and the park superintendent ex officio, a nonvoting seat that comes with the job. It would drop a cooperative-agreement requirement for road service areas but keep a duty to consult them.

The council wants three more seats, for road service area board experience, neighborhood-impact expertise and project management. It wants the two limited or rural road service area seats reserved for areas bordering the park, and an ex officio community council president. It seeks memorandums of understanding with affected road service area boards and community council consultation before budgeting or construction.

"As a neighborhood we are unified in our objection to any public process that sidelines our viewpoints or denigrates our involvement," said the resolution, signed by President Dirk A. Sisson, which noted the mayor's ad hoc advisory group included nine parks and trails advocates but no road service area or community council members.

It also rejects what it calls the sponsors' assumption that residents unfairly shrank the Basher Trailhead parking lot, citing a survey in which most of 400 residents favored a smaller lot.

Sponsors say all service area property owners fund CASA bonds, so no subgroup should hold veto power. At a Sept. 25 work session, they said a revision would restrict the limited road service area seats to areas next to the park.

The CASA capital plan is slated for adoption with the fiscal 2027 budget on Nov. 17.