Fairbanks rewrites Chena riverfront rules; its own 2019 warning was never acted on

A house built exactly to code on the Chena River could have the bank reach it before the mortgage is paid off. That was the warning in a 2019 letter from the borough's Chena Riverfront Commission, and the letter is now in the background packet as Fairbanks rewrites its riverfront plan.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated erosion on the river's high-risk outside bends at about 1.8 feet a year. The borough's minimum setback from the water is 25 feet. At that rate, a structure built at the minimum could be threatened in about 15 years, the length of a typical mortgage. The commission documented 22 feet of bank lost over 17 years a mile upstream of Fort Wainwright, and more near the Nordale Road Bridge over decades.

Commission chair Buki Wright's letter to then-Mayor Bryce Ward asked the borough to let its platting board "impose more restrictive standards" in high-erosion areas, giving new homes more room to adapt as the bank moves. It noted the change would do nothing for people already living in streamside subdivisions, whose options come down to rootwads or riprap. State and federal money has paid about $1.136 million for fish-friendly bank stabilization on the Chena, matched by landowners.

The draft plan now under review takes up the same ground. Its chapter on the river's natural functions lays out buffer widths for different purposes, from the 15-foot minimum of undisturbed native vegetation Fish and Game recommends, through 25 to 50 feet for bank stability, to 300 feet or more for full ecological protection. The draft calls those examples, "not universal setbacks for every property or river location," and notes that the widest buffers often are not feasible in town.

A separate chapter proposes a land use map for the riverfront that would guide future zoning without changing any on its own. The plan would replace the one adopted in 2016. A borough subcommittee works through the draft chapters Tuesday.