Planning commission backs rezone to legalize Chugiak house built on industrial land

The Anchorage Planning and Zoning Commission voted Monday to recommend that the Anchorage Assembly rezone a 1.33-acre Chugiak lot from light industrial to low-density residential, a change that would make a house on the lot legal.

The house was built in 2006 without permits, and a permit wouldn't have been issued for it then, said Paul Hatcher of the Planning Department. Hatcher said he believes the current owner bought the property in 2019. There's no current enforcement violation, he said, but "variances are not an option for illegal uses." The rezone, he said, "will bring the structure into compliance with code."

The owner applied through his real estate agent, Garrett Moore, who told the commission the current zoning makes financing challenging. Their application says the rezone would let future homeowners get traditional mortgages.

The staff report recommended approval. The area's 2006 comprehensive plan update already calls for homes on the parcel, and state and city agencies raised no objection.

Three owners of neighboring industrial lots objected, saying the area can't spare industrial land and a house next door would crowd their businesses.

Noah Groskreutz, who owns a lot in the subdivision and started his construction business 20 years ago, said industrial land outside the Anchorage Bowl is "severely lacking" and the city needs more of it, not less. "Once you start pulling a lot at a time, it's kind of a slippery slope," he said.

Richard Markiewicz said a residential neighbor would affect 25 feet of his property and worried about noise complaints. Ricky Daniels, who owns two lots, said heavy equipment uses the road past the house. "It would not be safe for whomever is moving into that," he said.

Hatcher said the 25-foot buffer in the area's 1987 zoning rules applies to the outer edge of the industrial area, not to lot lines inside it. He added that the industrial lots already border residential zoning on other sides and must follow noise rules because of it.

One commissioner said she also sees a significant shortage of light industrial land in Chugiak-Eagle River, but noted the rezone follows the comprehensive plan. Commissioner Jared Gardner, who made the motion, said the neighbors' concerns "should be relatively limited" because the rezone doesn't change the existing use and doesn't look like it will "materially add new buffer requirements." He said neighboring properties could face additional landscaping requirements for being next to a residential zone, but not right away. Those would kick in only if an owner sought a land use permit, such as for an addition, Hatcher said.

The Assembly makes the final decision. If it rejects the rezone, Hatcher said, the city would look at changing the property to a use the industrial zone allows.