Volland proposes a task force to streamline Anchorage permitting

Assembly Vice Chair Daniel Volland of North Anchorage wants the Assembly to ask Mayor Suzanne LaFrance to form a task force to streamline permitting under the city's zoning code. His resolution says the process's complexity, length and administrative burden have "repeatedly" been identified as a barrier to new housing.

The Assembly reads the resolution Nov. 4 and has scheduled a public hearing for Dec. 1.

The city is short of its own housing goal. It has set a goal of 10,000 new or rehabilitated homes in 10 years, or about 1,000 a year. Last year it permitted about 400 new units and counted at least 300 major renovations, roughly 70% of that pace, the mayor's office said in July.

LaFrance has said Anchorage needs about 2,500 more homes in the next five years to support the military community as investment flows to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, where family housing was already about 98% full this summer.

Volland's memo ties the resolution to an Aug. 28 Assembly work session where builders Shaun Debenham of Debenham LLC and Bill Taylor of Colony Builders and Tyler Robinson of Cook Inlet Housing Authority offered suggestions. At a Commonwealth North housing panel the day before, Debenham said: "Took me 9 months to go through and get a permit. 9 Months!"

The Assembly's August housing progress report put the median wait for a residential permit at about 22 days in 2024 for applications filed through the city's online ePlans system. That was down from about 26 days in 2023 but up from about 17 in 2019. The report notes the number depends on how long applicants take between steps.

The mayor's office said in July that it had cut residential zoning reviews from 10 business days to five this summer, and that the city had already permitted more homes in 2026 than in all of 2024. A new permitting system is slated for 2027.

Not everyone has asked for less process. In the fight over the Missing Middle housing overlay, the Turnagain and Sand Lake community councils asked the Assembly to leave single-family and two-family zones out of the overlay. Failing that, they asked it to require conditional use approval for multi-unit housing there, which they said would ensure affected property owners get direct notice and public hearings.

Turnagain's resolution also said the Assembly had already dropped a requirement to notify property owners of rezonings and overlays proposed by the city.

Volland's resolution says streamlining can cut "unnecessary administrative burdens" while keeping health, safety and land use standards. It asks the mayor to consider up to three Assembly members and representatives of the Planning Department, the Planning and Zoning Commission, the Anchorage Community Development Authority and the Anchorage Home Builders Association, along with community groups, which it does not name. The mayor would decide whether to form the group and who serves on it.

The task force could recommend changes to the zoning code and to city procedures and policies. Its meetings would be public. It would convene within 90 days of the resolution's passage and report to the Assembly within six months of convening.