Rezone would make Chugach Electric campus heavy industrial and drop a greenway

Two ordinances introduced Wednesday, Nov. 4, before the Anchorage Assembly would rezone Chugach Electric Association's 9.15-acre North Campus from general business to heavy industrial and remove a planned greenway feature from the city's land use map. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance's administration recommends approval.

The five parcels sit between Post Road and Ingra Street and East 3rd and 4th avenues. The utility uses them for heavy equipment parking, a storage yard, warehouses and offices, according to the Planning Department staff analysis. Heavy industrial zoning is meant for uses such as manufacturing, warehousing, equipment and materials storage and freight terminals. The current general business zoning is meant mainly for commercial uses. Staff said there is no proposed change to how the property is used.

The first ordinance changes the land's designation in the Anchorage 2040 Land Use Plan from Light Industrial/Commercial to General Industrial. It also strips the Greenway-Supported Development feature, which marks where new development should include open space, creek corridors and walking routes. The second ordinance rezones the parcels and depends on the plan change passing first.

The Anchorage Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended both measures Aug. 3, as Alaska News reported Aug. 4.

Senior Planner Francis McLaughlin's staff report on the plan change called it a "housekeeping matter" that corrects an error on the map. The report said the greenway feature is conceptual and marks a needed link between greenbelts, but a route through the campus is not appropriate given planned industrial uses. It could run elsewhere, possibly in the adjacent right-of-way.

Karlie Lamothe of DOWL represented the utility. At the August commission hearing, she said the greenway was drawn in 2017 as a buffer park in case the Seward-to-Glenn highway connection ran through the area, and that it covers only the southwestern two of the five parcels. Planning studies now show the connection will not touch the properties, she said. She added that the campus has supported utility infrastructure for roughly 60 years.

Staff described the surrounding area as largely industrial, apart from a neighboring homeless shelter.

The city mailed 143 hearing notices, and the utility met with the Fairview Community Council in May. The Planning Department received no public comments. The Downtown and Fairview community councils did not comment, and state and municipal reviewing agencies raised no objection.

The Assembly will decide both measures after a public hearing Tuesday, Dec. 1, when residents can testify.