Girdwood street crews could get long-term control of their storage yard

Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration wants to give Girdwood's street crews long-term control of the lot where they have kept their equipment for years. The Anchorage Assembly gets the ordinance Tuesday, with a public hearing set for Nov. 4.

Girdwood is part of the Municipality of Anchorage, about 40 miles from downtown, but its roads are maintained by its own crews, paid for with Girdwood Valley Service Area property taxes. The land those crews work from is a different matter.

Since 2009, they have run a storage yard at the end of Bedrock Circle, in the Girdwood Industrial Park, on a permit from the Heritage Land Bank, the city agency that manages municipal land with no assigned use.

Girdwood's road crews and other service area departments decided several years ago that they needed a parcel of their own, according to an administration memo. Control of the 3.3-acre lot would let them put in their own utility connections and plan for the long term, possibly including a heated storage building.

Girdwood's Board of Supervisors said the move would let the service area spend local tax money on improvements residents have asked for, including power on the lot for snow removal equipment.

The land wouldn't be sold. The city would keep it, with management handed to the Street Maintenance Section for Girdwood's use. If the crews stop using it as a storage yard, it would go back to the land bank within six months.

One city agency sees a different use for the lot. The Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility runs Girdwood's sewage treatment plant next door.

"AWWU sees a long-term need to reserve Parcel 6-057K for the Girdwood Wastewater Treatment Facility," Kaleigh Jones, the utility's land use coordinator, wrote in agency comments. As Girdwood grows, she wrote, the utility expects to expand and upgrade the plant, and this lot would best accommodate that.

The ordinance requires that the utility be consulted during long-term planning for the lot and before any permanent buildings go up.

Parts of the lot also lie in Glacier Creek's 100-year and 500-year floodplains, city watershed staff wrote, and development there may be limited. The city's flood hazard administrator wrote that storage rules may apply; the city bars storing buoyant, flammable or explosive equipment or materials in the floodplain.

Girdwood's Land Use Committee voted 6-0 on Sept. 14 to back the transfer, and the Board of Supervisors followed 5-0 a week later. The Heritage Land Bank Advisory Commission recommended approval Sept. 24.