Fairbanks planners reject York Avenue duplexes over the road to the school

A Fairbanks builder wants to put as many as eight duplexes on a 2.5-acre stretch of York Avenue. The Planning Commission told the Assembly to say no, 7-3, and the reason came down to the road.

Bill Vivlamore asked to rezone the parcel from single-family to two-family and split it into eight lots. His family testified in support, calling it an affordable-housing project. The firm plans are narrower than the request: three duplexes for the applicant's adult children. What goes on the other five lots, nobody said. Deny the rezone and the land still allows eight single-family homes.

Community Planning staff backed approval, pointing to the housing goals in the borough's comprehensive plan and estimating the duplexes would add about 20 percent more trips on York and Windsor than eight single-family homes would, a difference between two build-outs, not a 20 percent jump over what's there now.

The neighbors weren't arguing about trip counts. Steve Peek said the roads can't take the density. Karen Brauser described a car sliding into her as she walked an icy street with no sidewalk and no shoulder. And the staff report carried a fact the commissioners kept returning to: a child was killed in 2011 at Birch Lane and Loftus Road. Both roads feed University Park Elementary.

The vote was tangled enough to signal how hard commissioners chewed on it. They recommended denial 7-3, then voted 10-0 to reconsider, then recommended denial again, 7-3, on traffic safety and neighborhood character.

None of it is binding. The recommendation only advises the Assembly, which can reject the rezone or send it back with instructions. Ordinance 2026-19 goes to an Assembly work session Aug. 6, and the Assembly, not the commission, decides whether the duplexes get built.