North Slope Borough Assembly raises lot density to four homes in zoning code rewrite

The North Slope Borough doubled how many homes can go on a standard residential lot. Four single-family houses can now sit where two were allowed, on the traditional 70-by-130-foot parcel, which works out to about 2,275 square feet of ground apiece. The assembly approved it Tuesday afternoon on a 9-0 roll call vote.

It arrived inside a 67-page rewrite of the borough's subdivision and zoning titles. Those two titles came out of the borough's first comprehensive plan in 1983 and have been, in the plan's own words, the fundamental regulatory tools the borough uses to decide what gets built on the North Slope ever since. No assembly member asked a question during the public hearing. No resident testified.

The shortage the change is aimed at is documented in the borough's own comprehensive plan: 637 unmet housing units across the North Slope, roughly 306 of them in Utqiagvik. That count dates to 2015. The plan projects at least 1,705 additional homes will be needed by 2035, which works out to about 189 a year from now until then. It recommends encouraging duplexes, triplexes and larger multifamily houses, and amending the zoning ordinance to allow condominiums and zero lot line homes.

What the ordinance creates is permission, not houses. Nobody on the North Slope is obligated to build anything, and the reason lots sit empty in a region short 637 homes has less to do with lot lines than with what it costs to get lumber to Atqasuk.

Mayor Josiah Patkotak told the assembly the density change is one piece of a larger effort, and named the other pieces. The administration is developing a property tax waiver under a state law change taking effect in coming weeks. The housing department is working to make building materials more affordable in the villages. He said the combination is meant to ease housing shortages without the borough subsidizing every part of the cost.

Each new home still needs administrative approval from the borough's land management officer, and builders have to meet fire marshal separation distances and firewall requirements.

Much of the rest of the ordinance is reconciliation. The mayor said the two titles had carried different setback distances for the same areas and different road widths, and that permit review deadlines did not specify calendar days or working days. The rewrite also replaces a television advertising requirement for public notices.

Qinugan Roddy, assistant to the director of Planning and Community Services, read the ordinance into the record as one "amending certain sections of Title 18, Subdivisions, and certain sections of Title 19, Zoning" of the North Slope Borough Municipal Code. The Zoning Commission recommended approval in May, and the Planning Commission followed later that month. After the roll call, Assembly President Crawford Patkotak announced that the ordinance had been adopted.