Chugach seeks industrial zoning for its campus, dropping a buffer

Chugach Electric wants Anchorage to officially recognize what its North Campus already is: an industrial site. Doing that would also remove a planned green-space buffer from the city's map, one that was only ever a placeholder for a highway that now looks unlikely to come through.

The Planning and Zoning Commission recommended Monday that the Assembly rezone the roughly 9.5-acre site, near Third Avenue and Post Road, from general business to heavy industrial, matching its longstanding use for utility storage, offices and heavy equipment. The commission also backed dropping a "greenway" buffer that covers part of the property on the city's land-use plan.

That buffer dates to 2017, when planners set it aside as a possible buffer park in case a new Seward-to-Glenn highway connection was routed through the area, the petitioner's representative said. A 2025 draft study now favors routes that avoid the properties.

Chugach proposes no new construction. No one testified against the change, including the neighboring Brother Francis Shelter and Third Avenue Navigation Center, which raised no concerns at a community meeting. The Assembly makes the final decision.